



^vo> 



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Book Oc ; 



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AN OUTLINE 



'/^^/^Z 




OF THE 



ELEMENTS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE, 



FOR THE USE OF STUDENTS. 



By N. G. CLARK, 



FBOFZSSOB OF RH£IOBIO AXS ENGLISH UTEBATCBE IN UNION COLLEGE. 



NEW YORK: 
CHARLES SCRIBNER, 124 GRAND STREET. 

1864. 



V 









Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by 
N. G. Clark, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Northern District of , 

New York. 



In CA-Cu. 

oft5. PttJ>. ^^^' 



J. F. Tbow, Printer, 50 Greene St., N. T. 



PEEFACE. 



The work here offered to the public has been 
prepared with special reference to the wants of 
students beginning a course of studies in Eng- 
lish literature. It is the substance of lectures 
given in the University of Vermont during the 
last five or six years, w^ith such additional sug- 
gestions and material as have been derived from 
larger works recently published on the same or 
kindred subjects. 

The time devoted to the study of the English 
language and literature in the college course for- 
bids anything more than a mere outline of the 
elements, — an introduction rather than an ex- 
haustive discussion. The most that can be done 
is to map out the field it occupies, to show 
its general bearings and relations to other de- 
partments of knowledge, and if possible to lay 
down principles which may serve as the basis of 
future more careful and extended inquiry. 



iv • PREFACE. 

One reason for adding another to the many vol- 
umes on this subject already published and compet- 
ing for public favor, will be found in the method 
adopted, which aims to bring out more fully than 
has hitherto been done, so far as I know, the vital 
connection between the language and the physi- 
cal and intellectual elements of English character. 
With this purpose, it has been judged best to 
consider the language alone, or with only such 
reference to its literature as should be strictly 
necessary to a clear understanding of the matter 
in hand. Though the work has been prepared 
primarily for the use of students, this method 
may serve to give it an interest to the general 
reader. 

Another reason is to prepare the way to con- 
sider the literature of our language in a similar 
method, — in its elements of thought, and as the 
expression of the course of English thought at 
different periods, and of the various changes and 
modifications to which it has been subjected. It 
i^ believed that the time is not far distant, when 
the scientific methods so generally introduced into 
the discussion of other subjects may be applied 
here with advantage, and literature cease to be a 
mere aggregate of written productions, and attain 



PREFACE. V 

to something of the order of Science. At the 
least it may be worth our while to be working 
in that direction. 

The more important works consulted in the 
preparation of these pages, have been referred to 
in foot-notes, and occasionally in the text for a 
more full notice of the topics alluded to. These 
references will enable the student to follow out 
his investigations to almost any extent. More 
special reference is due to the invaluable works 
of Marsh, Craik, Max Miiller, and Trench, to 
all of which it is hoped that this volume may 
serve as an introduction. As the works of Craik 
have not yet been republished in this country, 
and are not therefore accessible to students gen- 
erally, greater use has been made of his investi- 
gations. It was my design at first to republish 
his " Outlines of the History of the English 
Language '^ with some notes, and additions, but 
the dijfiBculty experienced in determining what to 
reject and what to add, led me to give it up, 
with the exception of his " Illustrative Specimens " 
which are here reprinted with the addition of 
as many more. Some of the latter are due to 
the politeness of Mr. Sibley, the obliging Librarian 
of Harvard College, who allowed nje, during the 



VI PREFACE. 

few days I had at command, the free use of a 
very rich collection of old English works, the 
very sight of which almost filled me with despair 
of my attempt. 

The specimens ar6 given as illustrative, and to 
be made such, they must he studied in connec- 
tion with the body of the work. 

N. G. C. 

Union College, Schenectady, N. Y., > 
May 25, 1863. j 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER I. 
CELTIC AND ROMAN ELEMENTS. 

PAQl 

Object of the work — Physical and intellectual elements of 
the English character and language — The Aryan family 
of languages — Division — Period of Migration of the 
Different Races — The old British or Celts — Place — Con- 
test with Kome — Adoption of Christianity — Struggle 
with the Saxons — Character — Influence on the English 
mind — Love of Poetry — The Irish Branch — The Scotch 
— Welsh — Triads — Mabinogi — Celtic Language un- 
mixed with Latin or Saxon — Celtic words in English — 
Eoman period — Influence of the Komans — Traces of 
their language and civilization 13 

CHAPTER XL 

THE ANGLO-SAXON OB GOTHIC ELEMENT. 

Course of Gothic migrations — Different Branches of 
the Gothic Family — Modern English — Different Saxon 
Tribes represented among the Saxon Conquerors of Eng- 
land — Dialects in England — Saxons embrace Christian- 
ity — Character — Change in this respect — Homogene- 
ousness of Language — Relation io High and Low Ger- 
man — Vulgar Language — Saxon use of the Terms Eng- 
land and English — Opinions of Craik and Marsh — De- 
gree of Development of the Anglo-Saxon Language — 



4 CONTENTS. 

PAQE 

Literature in their Pagan State — Songs — After the 
Adoption of Christianity — Bede — Aleuin — From Bede 
to Alfred — Anglo-Saxon Literature different from that 
of other Nations — The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle — Verse 

— Beowulf — Ctedmon — Longfellow's Judgment — Saxon 
Prose — Alfred 22 

CHAPTER IIL 

ANGLO-SAXON ELEMENT CONTINUED. — LANGUAGE. 

CapabiUties of the Language — Moral and Metaphysical 
Terms — Substitution of Latin Eoots for Saxon — Anglo- 
Saxon Inflections — Pronunciation — Orthography — Parts 
of Speech — Inflection of Pronouns — Verbs — Govern- 
ment — Economy of Expression — Tendency to reject In- 
flections in passing over into English — Simple Forms in 
use by the Poets — Words formed with the least Expense 
of Sound — Words derived from the Anglo-Saxon — An- 
glo-Saxon Terminations — Adjectives — Nouns — Verbs 

— Parts of Speech — Words considered with reference 
to their Meaning — Generic and Particular — Number of 
Words of Anglo-Saxon Origin — M. Thommercl — In 
Common Use — Words used by different Authors — 
" The Ormuluni " — Shakspeare — Milton — Marsh's 
Estimates — Words suited to Subject-Ma tter — Old Words 
revived — References 34 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE DANISH ELEMENT. — THE NORMANS. 

First Appearance of the Danes — Origin and Character — 
Hate of Chiistiajis — Extent of their Conquests — Recog- 
nized by William the Conqueror — Become civilized — 
Affect the Character of the Anglo-Saxons — Deepened 
the Love of Maritime Adventure — Nelson — Language 
as affected by the Danes — Few Words introduced by 
them — The Normans in France — Early Culture — Two 
Dialects of the French — Arab Learning and Influence 



CONTENTS. O 

PAGB 

— The Norman Conquest — Radical Difference in Charac- 
ter between the Normans and the Saxons, as seen in later 
times — No attempt to extirpate the old Language — 
Results of the Conquest, as summed up by Craik — Use 
of the Latin, Norman, and Saxon Languages — Earl of 
Arundel — Anglo-Norman — Earliest English — Extent of 
Norman Influence on the Language during the first two 
Centuries of Norman Rule 46 



CHAPTER V. 

NORMAN ELEMENT CONTINUED. — EAKLY ENGLISH. 

Gradual Disuse of Norman French in England — Statutes 
in English — Final Disuse — Duration of Norman Influ- 
ence as a Distinct Element — Rise of a genuine English 
Spirit and Character — Gradual Rise of English Speech — 
Layamon — " The Ormulum " — Marsh's Opinion — Vo- 
cabulary — First Step towards a Union of the Races in the 
time of John — Condition in the Thirteenth Century — 
Bishop of Lincoln — Alehouse Rhymes — An Intermediate 
Idiom in the large Towns — A Saxon Middle-Class — 
Dramatic Exhibitions — Minstrels — Coleridge's Glossarial 
Index — Changes in the Old Language, internal ; Causes 
— English instead of Norman for Historical Themes in the 
Fourteenth Century — Scarcity of good French — Resort 
to native Authors — Their Character — Merry Tales — No 
Uniformity in the New Language — Plastic Condition — 
Value of the Services of Langlande and Chaucer — Chau- 
cer's Vocabulary, according to Marsh — Wycliffe and his 
School — Beginning of Modern English 6C 

CHAPTER VL 

NORMAN ELEMENT CONTINUED. —LEARNING. — 
LITERATURE. 

William the Conqueror ,a Patron of Letters — Use of Latin 
in the Schools — Large Attendance at the Universities 
during the Thirteenth Century — Latin Chronicles — 



6 CONTENTS. 

* PAGB 

William of Malmesbury — Geoffrey of Monmouth — 
Latin Poetry — Miscellaneous Latin Literature — Richard 
de Bury — Roger Bacon — The Scholastic Philosophy — 
Influence on later English Writers — Theological Litera- 
ture — Native Literature of the Normans — At the English 
Court — The Language of Provence — Character of the 
Native Literature, as indebted to the Scandinavians and 
the Celts — Henry I. — Master Wace — The Arthurian 
Romance — Characters of the Writers — The San Greal 

— Walter Mapes — Wright's Opinion — Place and Time 
of Composition of Romance — Value — Transition from 
Verse to Prose — Chronicles of Froissart — Lord Berners' 
Translation — Separation of the English from the French 

— The Physical Elements of the National Character and 
Language Complete 72 

CHAPTER VII. 

EARLY ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

Distinct National Spirit knd Language — Early Literary 
Works — Layamon — Edition of Sir Francis Madden — 
Philological Value — Verse — " Ancren Riwle " — Vo- 
cabulary — " The Ormulum " — Dr. White's Edition — 
Orthography — Traces of Norman Influence — Marsh's 
Estimate of the Work — The Proclamation of Henry III. 
— " The Romance of Alexander " — " The Owl and Night- 
ingale " — " Surtees Psalter " — " Chronicle of Robert of 
Gloucester " — " The Geste of Kyng Horn " — Old Ser- 
mons from " Reliquiae Antiquae " — Most important Gram- 
matical Changes of the Thirteenth Century — Vocabu- 
lary according to Coleridge's Glossarial Index 85 

CHAPTER VIII. 

ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 

Rhymed Chronicle of Robert Mannynge ~ Vocabulary — 
The Forms of the Pronouns — Relation to Ballad Poetry 

— Theories as to Robin Hood — Thierry — Name of a 
Cycle — Metrical Romance — Time and Popularity —Late 



CONTENTS. 7 

PAoa 
Editions — References — Influence on the Language — 
Political Poems — Variety of Measure — Wright's Edition 

— Tendency to form Inflections — Example from the 
" Keliquiae Antiquae " — Date to mark the Rise and De- 
velopment of a genuine English Language — Connection 
with the National Life — Sources whence Romance Words 
were introduced — First English Poet — Lawrence Minot 

— Poems — Verse — Alliteration falls into Disuse — Re- 
cent Revival of it — The first great Prose Writer — Sir 
'John Mandeville — Character of his Work — Philological 
Value — Orthography — Robert Langlande — Estimation 
in which his Poem was held — Verse — Spirit — Extract 
from the Sermon of Reason — The Creed of " Piers 
Ploughman." 95 

CHAPTER IX. 

FOUETEENTH CENTURY CONTINUED. — WYCLIFFE 
AND CHAUCER. 

Character and Culture of John de WycUffe — Translation 
of the Bible — Edition of Forshall and Madden — Refer- 
ence to Marsh — Grammatical Changes — Chaucer — As 
a Literary Man — His English Heart — Services to the 
Language — Marsh's Opinion — Language of Chaucer — 
French words employed — Chaucer's Verse — The final e 

— Peculiarities in the Forms of Verbs — General Simpli- 
fication of the Language — No new Words from the Anglo- 
Saxon revived after this — The Process of Dialectic Re- 
generation — John Gower — Value of his Works to the 
Language — The Prose of the Fourteenth Century — 
Chaucer's Prose — Wyclifie — Sermon against Miracle 
Plays — The Language now settled — Limit of future 
Changes 107 

CHAPTER X. 

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN THE FIFTEENTH CEN- 
TURY. 

General Spirit of this century — James I. of Scotland — Lyd- 
gate — Bishop Pecock — Sir John Fortescue — Malory's 



8 CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Morte Arthur — Its Prose — The Paston Letters — Wil- 
liam Caxton, the great English Printer — Character of the 
Works he printed — The Gallicisms of his Style — End of 
Old Enghsh — Extract from Hallam 116 ' 

CHAPTER XI. 

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN THE SIXTEENTH CEN- 
TURY. 

Causes contributing to the New Era — The Period of the 
Reformation analogous to the Age of Edward III. — Lord 
Berners' Froissart — The Life of Edward V. and of Rich- 
ard III., by Sir Thomas More — Tyndale's Version of the 
New Testament — Based on that of Wycliffe — The Re- 
formers, Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley — Their Language 
— Sir John Cheke and Roger Ascham — Language of most 
Theological Writers — Foreign Importation overdone — 
Reaction — Vindex Anglicus — Real Value of the Addi- 
tions fi'om Foreign Sources — Words of Latin Derivation 
direct from the Classics — Formation of Words from Latin 
Sources — Scientific and Technical Terms — Farther Re- 
action — Union of the Latin and Saxon Elements — Study 
of Words 121 

CHAPTER XIL 

THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY CONCLUDED. — ITALIAN 
LITERATURE. — THE DRAMA, — SPENSER. — THE 
SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 

Italian Literature in the Age of Edward III., of Henry 
VIII. — Nature of its Influence — Blank Verse — Pastoral 
Poetry — Minor Poets of the Elizabethan Era — Dramatic 
Literature — Aid to the Saxon portion of the Language — 
Dramatic Writers — Scholars — Vocabulary of Shakspeare 
as compared with Milton — The Vocabulary of Original 
Authors — Shakspeare in this respect — Shakspeare's 
Words the fit words — Early Dramatists — Spenser — 
Peculiarity of his Poetry, Language — Minor Poets of the 
Age: Warner, Joseph Hall, Chapman, Daniel, Donne, 



CONTENTS. 9 

PAGE 

Quarles, Herbert — Standard Version of the Scriptures — 
• Its Dialect — Influence — English Liturgy — Writers of 
the English Church — Style — Wants of the Language — 
Milton's Influence on the Language — Lord Bacon — 
Milton's Minor Poems and Prose 131 

CHAPTER XIIL 

CONCLUDING PERIOD. 

The Erench School — Period in England — Dryden — His 
Position and Merits — Hobbes, his Style — The Merits of 
the French School — The Prose of the Essayists, as a 
Model — Bunyan — Izaak Walton — Changes in the Lan- 
guage since the opening of the Eighteenth Century — 
Defoe — Swift — Bolingbroke — Johnson — Value of John- 
son's Labors -r- His Written Style — The English Histo- 
rians — The Style of Macaulay — Causes of a more Idio- 
matic Style of Late Years — Influence of German Litera- 
ture — The Language in Great Britain as Compared with 
its Use in the United States — Differences — Cause — 
Orthography — Changes of Pronunciation — Influence of 
Political Discussions, of the Clergy — Position and Fu- 
ture Destiny of the Language 140 



ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 

SBIPLE ENGLISH, (Saxon) : — 

1. Saxon Period : — From the Voyage of Ohther in Al- 

fred's Translation of Orosius, book i. : — before a. d. 
900 154 

2. From the latter portion of the Saxon Chronicle : — 

about A. D. 1100 155 

3. From the AnglorSaxon Version of the Gospels. John 

iv. 1-10: — A. D. 1100 156 

BROKEN ENGLISH, (Semi-Saxon) : — 

4. Semi-Saxon Period : — Commencement of Layamon's 

"Brut: " — about a. d. 1200 158 

5. Layamon's Description of the arming of Prince Arthur 160 



10 CONTENTS. 

PAGX 

6. From Layamon, to show the change in the possessive 

case 162 

COMPOUND ENGLISH : — 

7. Early English Period: — Dedication of the Ormu- 

lum : — about a. d. 1250 1 163 

8. Erom the Ormulum : — Typical meaning of Unleavened 

Bread 164 

9. Proclamation of Henry III. :-a. d. 1258 164 

10. Beginning of a Song against the King of Almaigne : — 

about A. D. 1264 167 

11. Commencement of Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle : — 

about A. D. 1300 168 

12. Beginning of a Song on the Execution of Sir Simon 

Eraser : — a. d. 1306 169 

13. Medical Recipes from Reliquiae Antiquse. Erom a MS. 

of the Eourteenth Century 169 

14. Beginning and end of an Elegy on the death of Edward 

I. : — A. D. 1307 170 

15. Erom Robert de Brunne's Translation of Langtoft's 

Chronicle : — about a. d. 1340 170 

16. Middle English Period : — Erom Minot's Battle of 

Halidon Hill : — about a. d. 1350 172 

17. Commencement of the Vision of Piers Ploughman : — 

about A. D. 1360 172 

18. Erom Piers Ploughman, to show the combination of 

verbs with pronouns : — Allusion to Robin Hood. . . 173 

19. Erom Mandevil's Travels : — about a. d. 1370. 174 

20. Mandevil's Book authorized by the Pope 175 

21. The Eourth Psalm from the Wycliffite Version : — 

Both Versions : — about a. d. 1380 176 

22. Erom Wycliffe's Translation of the Bible : — about a. d. 

1380 177 

23. Erom a Sermon against Miracle-Plays : — Latter part of 

the Eourteenth Century 179 

24. Erom Trevisa's Translation of Higden's Polychronicon : 

— A. D. 1385 18C 

26. Beginning of the Reeve's Tale from Chaucer : — about 

A. D. 1390 181 



CONTENTS. . 11 

PA6B 

26. rrom the Parson's Tale, (in Prose), by Chaucer : — 

about A. D. 1390 182 

27. Prayer of Chaucer at the end of the Canterbury Tales . 183 

28. From the Eomance of King Alisaunder : — about a. d. 

1438 184 

29. Prom Lydgate's Poem entitled his Testament : — about 

A. D. 1450 .* 185 

80. Paston Letters : — Prom a Lover to his Mistress : — a. d. 

1469 186 

31. Conclusion of Caxton's English Translation of Higden's 

Polychronicon : — a. d. 1482 187 

32. Character of Richard III., by Sir Thomas More : — 

a.l>. 1513 188 

33. Prom the Prologue of Proissart's Chronicles : — Lord 

Berners' Translation : — a. d. 1523 189 

34. Letter from ^ir Thomas More to his Wife : — a. d. 

1528 190 

35. Prom Tyndal's Translation of the Bible : —a. d. 1534 

and 1536 192 

36. Prom Cranmer's Bible : — a. d. 1539 193 

37. Sonnet by the Earl of Surrey : — about a. d. 1545 194 

38. Modern Ekgltsh Period : — From the Geneva New 

Testament : — a. d. 1557 195 

39. Commencement of Sackville's Liduction in the "Mir- 

ror for Magistrates : " — a. d. 1559 196 

40. From Ascham's " Schoolmaster : " — Quick Wits : — 

about A. D. 1563 196 

41. From the " Schole Master : " — "Force of Example : "— 

Roger Ascham 197 

42. From Sidney's "Apologie for Poetrie : 'i — about a. d. 

1580 : 198 

43. From the Rheims New Testament : — a. d. 1582 199 

44. From Webb's Discourse of English Poetrie : — a. d. 

1586 200 

45. From Spenser's " Faerie Qu^ene : " — about a. d. 1590 202 

46. From an Apologie of Poetrie, by Sir John Harrington : 

— A. D. 1591 , 202 

47. From Spenser's " View of the State of Ireland : " — 

about A. D. 1595 203 



12 CONTENTS. 

PAGB 

48. From Bacon's Essays : — On Studies : — a. d. 1597 204 

49. From the Authorized Translation of the Bible : — a. d. 

1611 205 

50. From Hooker's Ecclesiastical Politic : — a. d. 1617 206 

51. From the Preface to the Ephemeris Parliaraentaria : — 

Fol. London, 1654 207 

52. From Boy er's History of William III., vol. i. p. 114 : — 

London, 1703 208 

53. From Sir William Temple's Essay on Ancient and 

Modern Learning : — To show the use of Capital 
Letters in his time : — a. d. 1740 203 



LETTERS. 

I. Richard, Earl of Cambridge to Henry V. : — a. d. 

1415 210 

II. Richard IIL to his Mother : — A. d. 1484 211 

III. Lady Brian, Governess of Queen Elizabeth: — a. d. 

1536. 212 

IV. Queen Elizabeth to Mary Queen of Scots: — a. d. 

1.571 213 

V. Thomas Lorkin, Tutor of Prince Henry, to Mr. Adam 

Newton on Education at Paris : — a. d. 1600 214 

VI, Lord Bacon on his Impeachment: — a. d. 1620 215 

VII. Cromwell to the Lady Elizabeth his wife : — a. d. 

1651 217 



AN OUTLINE 



OF THE 



ELEMENTS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 



CHAPTER L . 

CELTIC AND ROMAN ELEMENTS. 

Object of the Work — Physical and Intellectual Elements of the 
English Character and Language — The Aryan Family of 
Languages — Division — Period of Migration of the Different 
Races — The Old British or Celts — Place — Contests with 
Rome — Adoption of Christianity — Struggle with the Sax- 
ons — Character — Influence on the English Mind — Love of 
Poetry — The Irish Branch — The Scotch — "Welsh — Triads 
— Mabinogi — Celtic Language unmixed with Latin or Sax- 
on — Celtic Words in English — Roman Period — Influence 
of the Romans — Traces of their Language and Civilization. 

It is the object of this work to present the elements 
of the English language in their relation to the physical 
and intellectual elements of English character. The 
language has been modified and determined by all the 
influences that have entered into, and affected the habits 
of life and thought of the people who have used it. It 
owes a part of its character to race, a part to the physi- 
cal relations of the countries where it originated and 
over which it has spread, and a part to the intellectual 

1 



14 ELEMENTS OF THE 

and moral ideas it has embodied, whether of home or 
of foreign source. In the order of nature as of time, 
the first thing to be considered is the element of race. 

The family of languages to which the English, in its 
various elements, belongs, has borne various names, — as 
Indo- Germanic, Indo-European, and Aryan. The first 
two indicate the relationship existing between the lan- 
guages of Europe and of India ; the last refers to the 
original seat of the family, Arya, or the noi^thern portion 
of modern Persia. From this central point successive 
migrations of the Aryan family were made to the south- 
east into India, and westward over Europe, till at length 
the Aryan family of languages prevailed, from the 
Ganges on the east, to the British Isles on the west, — 
from the peninsulas of the Mediterranean to the region 
of the frozen north. As the different tribes left the 
common seat, they bore away from the common stock the 
staple roots of the language, and developed from them 
new words to suit the scenes through which they passed, 
or the countries they made their home. The effects of 
climate, of occupation, of different degrees and opportu- 
nities of culture, soon became expressed in language, still 
plastic to every influence, till fixed in definite forms by 
the use of letters and a popular literature. Thus the 
original language of the Aryan race assumed differ- 
ent forms and bore different names, according to its lo- 
cality and the manifold influences affecting those who 
used it. 

The following division is that usually adopted by 
grammarians : the Sanscrit in India, where it is still 
preserved in the sacred books of the native population, 
and is honored as the oldest daughter of the family ; 
the Celtic, traces of which are still to be found in the 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 15 

British Isles ; the Greek and the Latin, perhaps subdi- 
visions of one branch at some pre-historic period ; the 
Gothic, or as it is sometimes called, the Teutonic or Ger- 
manic, the language of the various German tribes ; and 
the Sclavonic or Windic, with its subdivisions of the 
Lettic, the original language of Lithuania and a part of 
Prussia, and the proper Sclavonic, the language of Rus- 
sia, and of a portion of the different peoples subject to 
Austria. 

'At the present stage of inquiry, it is impossible to fix 
with any degree of precision upon the time when the dif- 
ferent tribes, represented by so many different dialects or 
languages, first became established in Europe. It is only 
within the present century, and as one of the triumphs of 
philological study, that the affinity of these so widely- 
scattered and so dissimilar tribes has been recognized ; 
many important questions still wait a decision, and many 
conclusions, now deemed certain, may be modified by 
more extended or careful investigation. It will be suf- 
ficient for our present purpose to give only the main out- 
lines, on which there is a general agreement. 

For a more detailed statement see '' Max Miiller's 
Survey of Languages," " Dwight's Modern Philology," 
" Harrison on the English Language." 

The Old British or Celtic Element. 

The Celtic tribes once occupied a large share of 
western Europe, including northern Spain, Italy, Switz- 
erland, Gaul, and the British Isles. They are supposed 
to have entered Europe as early at least as the twelfth 
century, b. c, and perhaps earlier. In the days of their 
prosperity they threatened the destruction of Grecian and 



16 ELEMENTS OF THE 

Roman civilization. One of their roving hordes settled 
down in a part of Asia Minor, which afterwards bore the 
name Galatia. After a desperate struggle, their power 
was broken by the Roman arms, first in Gaul and after- 
wards in Britain, in the century before the Christian era. 
On the Continent they seem to have submitted to the 
language and institutions of their conquerors, and ere- 
long to have become blended with them. At a later 
period they mingled their blood and their intellectual 
characteristics with the German tribes that successively 
overran their country, and lastly with the Northmen, — 
the future conquerors of England. 

In Britain, though they adopted Christianity and 
many institutions of social life from the Romans, they 
never became blended with them. The Romans held 
the country by an army of occupation, and when they 
withdrew, the country they had occupied fell a prey to 
the Saxons. The Britons, however, did not submit with- 
out a long and obstinate contest, commemorated in after- 
days through the patriotic legends of Arthur, one of their 
gallant leaders, and his no less gallant companions of the 
Round Table. A few maintained their independence, 
amid the fastnesses of Wales, down to the thirteenth 
century. Remnants, also, of this once widely-scattered 
people are still to be found among the native population 
of Brittany, Ireland, and the Highlands of Scotland, 
where, in the modern Erse, or Gaelic, the original lan- 
guage of the Celts is still in some measure preserved. 

The Celts were quite unlike the other peoples with 
whom they came in contact, both in spirit and in lan- 
guage. They possessed a lively imagination, and an 
ardent temperament, but they were deficient in steadiness 
of purpose and persistent will. They lacked the enter- 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 17 

prise and the hardihood both of the Eomans and the 
Germans, and were consequently obliged to give way to 
both. Their peculiar traits of character have been man- 
ifested in their preference for the "forms and ceremonial 
of the Romish religion to the simpler rites of Protestant 
Christianity ; in their passion for arms, pomp, and dis- 
play generally ; in the gallantry and dash that charac- 
terize the French, Irish, and the Scotch Highlander, as 
contrasted with the obstinate endurance of the English 
soldier ; — and for the imaginative element they have con- 
tributed to English literature, to its oratory, and its 
poetry. If we were to strike from the records of Eng- 
lish literature and arms the names of men of Celtic 
blood, it would be at the sacrifice of many of those most 
honored for their heroism, and most highly esteemed for 
their influence upon the English mind. From this point 
of view the Celtic population of the British Isles is worthy 
of no common regard. The bitter animosity of rival races 
during the earlier history of the English language, in its 
formation period, prevented the interchange of the forms 
of speech, but has not prevented in later times the com- 
mingling of blood, — of the warm blood and lively imag- 
ination of the Celt with the sohdity and the soberer 
virtues of the Saxon. 

Thierry ^ says of the ancient Britons, or Celts, that 
they lived on poesy. The expression is not too strong. 
In their political axioms which are still preserved, they 
place the bard by the side of the agriculturist and the 
artisan, as one of the pillars of social life. Their bards 
had but one theme, — the destiny of their country, its 
misfortunes and its hopes. The nation, poetic in its turn, 
eagerly caught up their fictions, and gave the most fanci- 

■'• Conqnele de VAngleterre, vol. i. p. 103. 



18 ELEMENTS OF THE 

ful meanings to the simplest words. The longings of the 
bard became promises of the future, and, cheered by his 
prophecies, they endured present distress as *a transient 
evil, waiting the time when they should recover their lost 
possessions and rights to the soil. 

As they never possessed letters, but rather despised 
them till a late period, they had no way of preserving 
their laws, history, and popular songs, save as they were 
handed down from one generation to another by their 
poets. Hence the very scanty knowledge we possess 
of their manners, usages, and literature, and the little 
influence they have exerted on subsequent times, except 
by the commingling of their blood. 

The Irish branch is the most remarkable for its liter- 
ary treasures. These are said to consist of legends, prose 
chronicles, and the songs of their bards. The earliest 
relics of the Celtic literature of Scotland are in metre, 
but of less value, despite the efforts of Macpherson and 
others to invest them with a mythical glory. The Welsh 
bards have a claim on our admiration as the champions 
and martyrs of national independence. The singular 
pieces called the " Triads " present us, regularly disposed 
in groups of three, a collection of historical facts, ethical 
and legal maxims, and a variety of traditional lore. But 
a few only of their metrical productions can be referred 
to a period earlier than the sixth century. The most 
belong to the later days of their independence, and com- 
memorate the calamities of their race. Their Mabinogi, 
or "Tales of Youth," were a worthy contribution to 
the Romance literature of the Middle Ages, resting upon 
the traditions of a rude and early generation.-^ But it 
was by other works, and especially by the legends of 

1 Spalding's English Literature, pp. 31, 32. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 19 

Merlin and Arthur, that the Celtic imagination was to 
exert the greatest influence upon the literature of Europe 
during successive centuries, — an influence felt to the 
present time. 

It is not strange that a people so radically distinct in 
spirit and character should have had so little affinity 
with the stern practical spirit of the Romans, and later, 
of the Saxon race. The grammatical forms of these lan- 
guages were never interchanged, and but comparatively 
few words from their vocabularies. And these few were 
commonly such names of objects as were new to the re- 
spective languages that adopted them. 

The difference in the character of the Celts from their 
neighbors was expressed in no less marked differences 
of language. Its system of inflections was much more 
fully developed than the Saxon. The moods and tenses 
of the verb were marked by peculiar inflections, with 
little if any dependence on auxiliary verbs. There was 
a great variety of forms to their pronouns to express the 
greatest number of relations. Add to this a flexibility in 
the change of consonants to form new combinations of 
words, and it is obvious that so highly complicated a lan- 
guage must have served as a great barrier to intercourse 
with their neighbors. In view, then, of the character 
and language of the Celts, we need not be surprised at 
the little influence they exerted, save in the particular 
directions already indicated. Their influence upon the 
English language directly, with the exception of adding a 
few words to its vocabulary, was really nothing. 

The words of Celtic origin now in use are mainly con- 
fined to names of places and to a few physical objects. 
The old British word dun, a rock, changed to don, in 
the termination of many English and American names 



20 ELEMENTS OF THE 

of towns and cities, recalls that rude state of society, 
when the fortress upon the rock or the beetling crag 
furnished the only security for life or possessions. It 
is the conclusion of some of the best writers on the sub- 
ject that the oldest topographical nomenclature in Brit- 
ain is Celtic.'^ Inquirers are by no means agreed as to 
the number of words on other subjects, some reckoning 
them by hundreds and even thousands, while others 
would reduce them to a comparatively small number. 
Among those commonly cited as of Celtic origin are the 
following : basket^ harrow, button, cart, crook, gown, pan, 
solder, wain ; all of which Mr. Marsh has shown to be 
derived from other sources, or at least to have a com- 
mon existence in other languages. " The probability is 
that most of the words in question belong to an earlier 
period of human speech than that of the existence of 
any language identifiable as distinctly Celtic, Gothic, or 
Italic." 2 

The Roman Element. 

The term Roman is here used to mark the influence 
exerted on the English character and language by the 
Roman occupation of Britain for five centuries, as dis- 
tinguished from that of the Latin language and litera- 
ture of a later date. The period under review begins 
with the invasion of Julius Caesar, 55 B.C. and closes 
with the year 449 A. d., the year of the first German 
immigration into the Island, though the Roman do- 
minion ceased to be acknowledged as early as the year 
409 A.D. 

The influence of the Romans upon the language and 

1 Craik's Outlines of the History of the English Language, p. 5. 

2 Second Series of Lectures, p. 86. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 21 

character of the subsequent periods of English history 
was no greater than that of the original Celtic popula- 
tion. No Breto-E-oman dialect was ever developed akin 
to the Romance languages of the Continent. The language 
of the Romans disappeared with their legions, or was 
immediately supplanted by that of the Saxon invaders. 
And though we must suppose some degree of Roman 
civihzation to have been attained during this long period, 
yet we have no certain information as to the prevalence 
of the Latin language. Whatever Roman colonists may 
have settled in the country were probably soon lost in 
the surrounding population. The only traces of the Ro- 
man dominion surviving in the language are found in 
the names of places, — as the terminations chester, cester, 
in Dorchester, Leicester, from castra, a camp ; and coin 
in Lincoln, from colonia — terms revealing the very su- 
perficial character of Roman influence upon the country. 
The vital organizing force of the Roman character was 
wellnigh lost. Yet we should not be in haste to say 
that we have received no advantage from the sway of 
the Romans in England. The arts and the civilization 
of Rome ever followed in the train of her armies, and 
the Britons were no exception to their influence, not- 
withstanding the hatred of race, and unlikeness of lan- 
guage and character. Whatever of civilization was at- 
tained was not lost upon men of so intensely practical 
a spirit as our Saxon ancestors, and could not have failed 
to secure in them the earlier adoption of the settled order 
and habits of civilized life. 



22 ELEMENTS OF THE 



CHAPTER 11. 

THE ANGLO-SAXON OR GOTHIC ELEMENT. 

Course of Gothic Migrations — Different Branches of the Gothic 
Family — Modern English — Different Saxon Tribes repre- 
sented among the Saxon Conquerors of England — Dialects 
in England — Saxons embrace Christianity — Character — 
Change in this respect — Homogeneousness of Language — 
Relation to High and Low German — Vulgar Language — 
Saxon — Use of the Terms England and English — Opinions 
of Craik and Marsh — Degree of Development of the Anglo- 
Saxon Language — Literature in their Pagan State — Songs — 
After the Adoption of Christianity — Bede — Alcuin — From 
Bede to Alfred — Anglo-Saxon Literature different from that 
of other Nations — The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle — Verse — 
Beowulf — Casdmon — Longfellow's Judgment — Saxon Prose 
— Alfred. 

The different tribes that, under the name of Saxons, 
Jutes, or Angles, overrun the most of South Britain 
during the fifth and sixth centuries of our era, belonged 
to the great Gothic family of nations. They are sup- 
posed to have entered Europe to the north of the Black 
Sea, and following the course of the Danube, to have 
taken possession of the countries drained by its waters 
and the region adjacent to the Baltic and the North 
Seas, including the Scandinavian peninsula. This fam- 
ily was early divided into three great divisions : the 
High German in the southern portion, represented in 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 23 

the present language of Germany ; Low German in the 
norths on the lowlands about the Elbe and on the North 
Sea, represented in the modern Dutch and the old 
Saxon ; and the Scandinavian, best known in the Scan- 
dinavian peninsula and in Iceland. Modern English is 
the result of a fusion of the various dialects of the Low 
German with the incorporation of some foreign elements, 
as the Celtic and the Latin. 

Much as in later times with the colored races on the 
coast of Guinea, a number of small tribes or frag- 
ments of tribes were crowded about the mouth of the 
Elbe, and into the low grounds of what is now known as 
Holland, Northern Hanover, and Denmark. Traces of 
these are manifest in the great number of dialects that still 
prevail in that neighborhood and in the evidently compos- 
ite character of the so-called Anglo-Saxon language of 
Britain. It is possible that the dialectic peculiarities 
noticeable in different parts of England to this day may 
in part be due to the same source.^ Wellnigh driven 
into the sea by their more powerful neighbors, they had 
learned to make use of it as a means of securing a sub- 
sistence, and developed a spirit of enterprise and daring 
that prepared them for the conquest of Britain. The 
acknowledged presence of the Jutes would lead us to 
expect adventurers from Scandinavia as well as other 
German tribes, attracted by the hope of plunder or of 
bettering their condition. The Britons were either 
driven away or exterminated. The invaders introduced 
a new language, new institutions, and a new religion; 

1 Note. — The stranger, in merely going from Liverpool to London, 
if he takes one of the cheap accommodation trains, will not fail to 
observe a great difference of dialect in the different sections through 
which he passes. 



24 ELEMENTS OE THE 

and though they embraced Christianity about the close of 
the sixth century, they accepted it not from the former 
occupants of the soil, but from missionaries sent among 
them from Rome. 

Some of the same elements of character that have been 
displayed in their descendants on both hemispheres are 
worthy of note : the enterprise and daring that shrink 
at no obstacles, physical or moral, in the way of their 
progress or aggrandizement, and the love of law and 
order at home, — at once aggressive and conservative. 
These two elements are the prime constituents of the 
foreign and domestic policy of the Saxon race. 

Yet the invaders seem soon to have settled down to 
the quiet enjoyment of their new homes, and to have 
relapsed into an inglorious ease, greatly in contrast with 
their earlier character. The general inactivity and ig- 
norance that prevailed at the opening of Alfred's career 
are very remarkable, and furnish little occasion of glory- 
ing in our Anglo-Saxon ancestry. The new life he 
awakened soon passed away. His people submitted 
first to their kinsmen, the Danes, and later to the Nor- 
mans, who were destined to infuse new life and activity 
into the Saxon character, and by the infusion of their 
blood and intellectual traits to give rise to a new nation- 
ality.^ 

However great the number of dialects among the 
original invaders of England, their language soon at- 
tained a fair degree of homogeneousness, yet never 
sufficiently so to conceal the diversity of its origin. This 
appears in the variations of inflection and orthography 
to be observed in different writers and in the same 
writer at different times. " Its syntax is irregular and 
iSee Marsh, Third Lectur , Second Series. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 25 

discrepant ; and though both its grammar and its vocab- 
ulary connect it most nearly with the low or Plat-Deutsch 
branch of the German, yet it has grammatical forms as 
well as verbal combinations and vocables which indicate 
now a relationship to High German, and now to Scandi- 
navian, not to speak of Celtic roots which it may have 
borrowed from the Britons, or may have received, at an 
earlier period, from the ancient fountain of Indo-European 
sp.eech whence the Celtic and the Gothic as well as the 
Romance and Hellenic languages of Europe are theoret- 
ically considered to have flowed. In short the Anglo- 
Saxon was much such a language as it might be sup- 
posed would result from a fusion of the old Saxon with 
smaller proportions of High German, Scandinavian, and 
even Celtic and Sclavonic elements ; and it bears nearly 
the same relation to those ingredients that modern Eng- 
lish bears to its own constituents, though indeed no single 
influence was exerted upon it so disturbing in character as 
the Norman French has proved to our present tongue." ^ 
These peculiarities of the Anglo-Saxon language show 
plainly enough the diversity of origin among those that 
finally united in using it. In the want of any trustworthy 
historical proof, the attempt has been made to determine 
the precise locality of the several tribes from the several 
dialects still existing, but the results are not altogether sat- 
isfactory. It is probable, however, that some remnants of 
the original language may still be found the least changed 
among the peasantry in some of the rural districts of Eng- 
land. Devoted to agricultural pursuits, having till re- 
cently but little communication with other parts of the 
country, strongly conservative in their feelings and habits, 
they would naturally preserve more of the ancient idiom 

1 Marsh, Second Series, p. 55. 



26 ELEMENTS OF THE 

in their ordinaiy home-speech. What is sometimes 
called vulgar language — the terms and phrases in use 
among our poor and less educated classes — claims our 
respect from its more direct descent from our Anglo- 
Saxon ancestors, and from its power of expression. It 
has been remarked by Bosworth,^ that in every province 
of England " some streamlets flow down from the foun- 
tain-head, retaining their original purity and flavor, 
though not now relished by fastidious palates." And 
it is from these sources that of late years many choice 
terms have been revived, adding to the freshness and 
force of the language now in use. 

The terms England and English do not appear to 
have been employed to designate the country and the 
people or language till some time in the ninth century, 
and then to have been first used by foreigners. Though 
Alfred and some other writers of the tkne call their lan- 
guage English, it seems wiser to retain the name Anglo- 
Saxon, and to apply the name English to the language 
now in use. The languaojes are neither the same in 
syntax, nor in their vocabularies; nor are the English 
strictly speaking of the same blood as the men who used 
the Anglo-Saxon, but have a blood, a character, and a 
language, the result of the commingling of different tribes 
and different languages. 

Of the two best writers on the early history of the 
language and literature, Craik and Marsh, the latter 
adheres to the usual designations, Anglo-Saxon for the 
earlier period, and English for the later ; but Craik, 
singularly enough after what would seem conclusive 
proof for agreeing with Marsh, uses the term English 
throughout. "As the case stands, the English of the 

1 Introduction to Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 27 

ninth century is one language, and the English of the 
nineteenth century another. They differ at least as 
much as the Italian differs from the Latin or as English 
differs from the German. The most familiar acquain- 
tance with the one leaves the other unintelligible 

The one may have grown out of the other, and no doubt 
has done so at least in part or in the main ; but in fact 
also the modern language is of quite distinct stock from 
the ancient. Of English literature and the English lan- 
guage, commonly so called, the language and literature 
of the Angles and Saxons before the twelfth century 
make no proper part."^ 

Whatever may have been the nature and capabilities 
of the Anglo-Saxon tongue, as regards derivation and 
composition, and the expression of the most varied forms 
of thought, yet it is certain that these capabilities were 
never developed. It is a dead language, and, unlike the 
classic languages of Greece and Rome, is too rude, too 
fragmentary, too irregular to be revived. " It is intelh- 
gible, and that is all. What is written in it can in a cer- 
tain sense be read, but not so as to bring out any artistic 
element, except of the most dubious and unsatisfactory kind. 
If it is not literally dumb, its voice has, for us of the 
present day, entirely lost its music. When it can be dis- 
tinguished from prose at all, it is only by certain marks 
or characteristics which may indeed be perceived by the 
eye, or counted on the fingers, but which have no expres- 
sion that excites in us any mental emotion. In respect 
of everything else appertaining to the soul of the lan- 
guage, our understanding of it is about equally imperfect. 
The consequence is that, although it can be translated, it 

1 Craik's History of the English Language and Literature, vol. i. pp. 
36, 37. 



28 ELEMENTS OF THE 

cannot be written. And as to translations from this lan- 
guage into modern English verse, nobody can say, except 
in reference to palpable points of right or wrong in gram- 
mar, whether they are well* or ill done. The language, 
though so far in our hands as to admit of being analyzed 
in grammars, and packed up in dictionaries, is not recov- 
erable in such a degree as to make it possible to pronounce 
with certainty whether anything written in it is artisti- 
cally good or bad." ^ 

The literature of the Anglo-Saxons has had almost 
no influence upon subsequent times, — none whatever, it 
may safely be said, upon the course of English thought, 
or as an element in it, — unless it be proved that Milton 
was indebted to Caedmon for some suggestions in the 
rough which he developed in the " Paradise Lost." But 
there is really no more agreement here than what the sub- 
ject would naturally occasion in poetic minds. 

But little as has been the influence of this literature, 
and crude as are most of the conceptions of all the lead- 
ing questions of life, government, morals, social order, or 
religion, and worthless as are the views expressed in 
science or history, we may still regard it with something 
of reverence, as the record of the thoughts and feelings 
of a brave and noble - hearted people. The fragments 
that have come down to us are really typical, after all, of 
the measure of intellectual life attained. 

Of the literary compositions of the Anglo-Saxons in 
their Pagan state we know very little. The Germans 
had their songs, and it is to be supposed that the Saxons 
were not behind other tribes. In fact, we find Edgar, 
one of their kings, after the introduction of Christianity, 
prohibiting the use of heathen songs at festivals. From 

1 Craik, Abridged. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 29 

tlie admittance of heathen traditions in their earlier pro- 
fessed Christian poems, we may fairly conclude that the 
old Saxon gleemen sung the deeds of heroes, victorious 
odes, and death-songs, much like other minstrels of bar- 
barous periods. 

It .is usual, however, to connect the rise of Anglo- 
Saxon literature, with the introduction of Christianity, 
about the close of the sixth century. Literature was 
chiefly cultivated by the religious orders, using for this 
purpose the Latin rather than the native language. 
Thus two literatures may be said to have grown up to- 
gether, — a learned literature in Latin, addressed to the 
learned, lay and ecclesiastical, both at home and abroad, 
which contains the theology and ecclesiastical history of 
the time ; and a national, popular literature, entirely in 
the popular tongue. The learned literature was worthily 
represented by Bede, — usually called the " venerable 
Bede," — still valued for his ecclesiastical and other his- 
torical matter, who flourished at the beginning of the 
eighth century ; and by Adhelm and Alcuin, though the 
latter, after receiving his education at York, wrote and 
lived under the dominion of Charlemagne. To Alcuin, 
Guizot bears the following testimony : " In him, at 
length, commenced the alliance of those two elements of 
which the modern mind had so long borne the incoherent 
impress, — antiquity and the church, — the admiration, 
the taste, the regret, shall I call it, for Pagan literature, 
and the sincerity of Christian faith, the zeal to sound its 
mysteries, and to defend its power." ^ It is certainly to 
be regretted that these really eminent classical scholars 
and men of real ability did not devote their energies 
to -developing the powers of their native tongue, like 

1 Civilization of France^ vol. iii. p. 54. (Am. edition.) 
2 



30 ELEMENTS OF THE 

Dante and Chaucer, of a later day, in their respective 
languages. 

For the next century and a half, or from the age of 
Bede to that of Alfred, the latter portion of the ninth 
century, we find little evidence of anything worthy the 
name of erudition ; and Alfred had to undertake a. task 
almost like that of instructing a wholly ignorant people. 
His practical mind, however, was by no means restricted 
to his Latin studies, and it is as a Saxon scholar, faithful 
to his native tongue, and untiring in his use of it to pro- 
mote the welfare of his people, that he is most deserving 
of notice. 

The native literature of the Anglo-Saxons differs in 
many respects from that of other nations. They paid 
little regard to early legends or traditions. They cannot 
be said to have had any historical literature at all, save dry 
chronological records of some few of the more important 
facts of their history, — nothing fitted to give us an ad- 
equate notion of their modes of life, habits, and usages. 
Pauli ^ is of the opinion that the Anglo-Saxon chronicles 
were first begun under Alfred, and that their reckoning 
began soon after a. d. 890. They were composed on the 
Latin model, and were made up of materials of all kinds. 
They were originated at a time when Alfred and his 
contemporaries were endeavoring to improve their native 
language. There is in them little or nothing of the 
merely fanciful or imaginative, that characterizes so much 
of the early literature of other nations, but a remarkable 
adherence to fact, — to matters of practical concern, — to 
the prose, rather than to the poetry of life. Such imag- 
ination as there is, however, is put to a truer use, and is 
made to serve the practical interests of truth. The 
1 Life of Alfred, p. 6. (Bohn Library.) 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 31 

Anglo-Saxon writers preferred to poetize moral and re- 
ligious maxims or doctrines, and practical information 
for the benefit of their fellow -men. This was due in 
part, of course, to the fact that the literature, such as it 
was, was cultivated by men devoted to the interests of 
the Church. Hence their paraphrases of the Scripture, 
their homilies, and, later, their version of the four Gos- 
pels, in the native tongue. 

Anglo-Saxon verse is usually made up of short ex- 
clamatory lines, whose rhythm theoretically depends on 
alliteration and accent of the more important words and 
syllables, while the omission of particles tends to give it 
vivacity and energy. Other peculiarities of style are 
the ellipses, the inversions, bold transitions, abundant and 
often obscure metaphors. These features are not peculiar 
to the Anglo-Saxons, but are derived from their Conti- 
nental ancestors. 

The poems referring to the earlier or heathen times 
remained unwritten, and were handed down in popular 
song, till the time of Alfred. These fragments, for the 
most part, belonged to the great epic cycle, which was 
the common property of the Germanic races. And it is 
probable that most of the vague accounts of the deeds of 
their famous men had also been sung by the wandering 
Scalds of the north. The origin of the Christian Anglo- 
Saxon poetry, on the contrary, belongs to the age of Al- 
fred, and is due to his influence upon the thought and 
sentiment of his people.^ The principal historical poem, 
Beowulf, belongs to a period prior to the invasion of 
England, and is supposed to be of Scandinavian origin, 
partly because of its allusions and resemblance to the 
Norse-Sagas, and partly because of its unlikeness to the 
1 PauU's Alfred, p. 166. 



32 ELEMENTS OF THE 

general tone and spirit of recognized Anglo-Saxon pro- 
ductions.^ The only other long work in verse is the 
metrical paraphrase of Scripture history, by Caedmon, 
recorded by Bede to have lived in the seventh century ; but 
the work is said by Craik to be merely a collection of 
separate Scripture narratives, " mostly paraphrased from 
the book of Genesis, possibly by various writers, and cer- 
tainly of much later date." A few other smaller pieces 
are extant, not deficient in spirit and vigor of expression, 
as the song on Athelstan's victory at Brunanburgh, and 
the poem on the fall of Byrthnoth, at Maiden, in bat- 
tle against the Danes. But most of the smaller poems 
are on religious subjects, — metrical lines of the saints, 
prayers, hymns, allegories, and paraphrases of Scripture. 
The following notice of Caedmon, by Longfellow, will 
illustrate somewhat his thought and method of treating 
character : " The author is a pious, prayerful monk, — an 
awful, reverend, and religious man. He has all the 
simplicity of a child. He calls his Creator, the Blythe 
Heart King; the patriarchs, Earls; and their children, 
noblemen. Abraham is a wise-heedy, a guardian of 
bracelets, a mighty Earl ; and his wife Sarah, a woman 
of elfin beauty. The sons of Reuben are called sea- 
pirates; the Ethiopians, a people brown with the hot 
coals of heaven. Striking poetic epithets and passages 
are not wanting, sprinkled here and there through the 
narrative. The sky is called the roof of nations, the 
roof adorned with stars. Whenever the author has a 
battle to describe, and hosts of arm-bearing and way- 
faring men draw from their sheaths the ring-hilted swords 
of doughty edges, he enters into the matter with so much 
spirit, that one can almost see, looking from under the 
1 Conybeare's Illustrations of AnglO' Saxon Poetry. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. S3 

monkish cowl, the visage of no parish priest, but of a 
grim war-wolf, as the brave were called when Caedmon 
wrote." ^ 

There were but few original compositions in Saxon 
prose, — and but little of any kind till the age of Alfred, 
and as the result of his efforts and example. Most of 
the prose works in the native tongue were translations 
from the Latin, in which the translators freely inserted 
matter of their own, as Alfred in his translation of " Boe- 
thius on the Consolations of Philosophy." If a passage of 
his author suggested an example for illustration or an 
apt train of reflection, it was at once added to the origi- 
nal or substituted for it. The last chapter is entirely 
of his own composition ; and many of his additions do 
honor to his head and heart. Among other works he 
translated the ecclesiastical history of Bede, and the an- 
cient history of Orosius. But his efforts, noble as they 
were, were put forth too late to awaken a true national 
spirit and so give birth to a national literature. 

See the third volume of Sharon Turner's " History 
of the Anglo-Saxons," for a detailed notice of Alfred's 
services to literature. 

1 Longfellow, Poets and Poetry of Europe, p. 5. 



34 ELEMENTS OF THE 



CHAPTER HI. 

ANGLO-SAXON ELEMENT CONTINUED. — LANGUAGE. 

Capabilities of the Language — Moral and Metaphysical Terms 

— Substitution of Latin Roots for Saxon — Anglo-Saxon In- 
flections — Pronunciation — Orthography — Parts of Speech 

— Inflection of Pronouns — Verbs — Government — Economy 
of Expression — Tendency to reject Inflections in passing 
over into English — Simple forms in use by the Poets — 
"Words formed with the least expense of Sound — Words 
derived from the Anglo-Saxon — Anglo-Saxon Terminations 
— Adjectives — Nouns — Verbs — Parts of Speech — Words 
considered with reference to their Meaning — Generic and 
Particular — Number of Words of Anglo-Saxon Origin — M. 
Thommerel — In Common Use — Words used by difierent 
Authors — " The Ormulum " — Shakspeare —Milton— Marsh's 
Estimates — Words suited to Subject-Matter — Old Words 
Revived — References. 

But it is not the literature of the Anglo-Saxons that 
needs to be considered, in this brief survey, farther than 
as indicative to some extent of their character. Modern 
English literature has derived from it nothing of value 
save a portion of its vocabulary. Some of its most 
valuable words for the expression of moral and relig- 
ious ideas have become obsolete, — supplanted by terms 
borrowed from the Latin, and introduced through the 
church. The language was not originally deficient in 
words for the expression of all ideas necessary to the 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 35 

most complete intellectual and moral culture. Turner 
has enumerated no less than sixty words originally de- 
rived from native roots, expressive of intellectual and 
moral conceptions ; and Marsh ^ remarks that there are 
besides these a great number of other equally fertile 
radicals belonging to the same department of the vocab- 
ulary, and that it would be difficult to jQnd in any lan- 
guage a term indicative of moral state or emotion or of in- 
tellectual action or perception, — excepting of course the 
artificial terms belonging to the technical dialect of met- 
aphysics, — which is not at least approximatively repre- 
sented in the Anglo-Saxon vocabulary. This is certainly 
remarkable, and reveals the richness and native power of 
the language, all the greater from the commingling of 
so many different tribes ; and renews our regret that it 
was never developed by the hand of a great master. It 
would then have maintained its independence more firmly 
against encroachment from abroad, and would have come 
down to us, richer in terms charged with all their native 
freshness and beauty of suggestion. 

The substitution of words of Latin derivation for the 
short, hearty, monosyllabic Saxon was a serious injury 
to the vital force and strength of the language. To all 
except Latin scholars, — and in a great measure to them 
also, because of inattention to etymological study, — there 
was a loss of meaning in the words, a loss of the sensuous 
imagery and the many-sided suggestiveness peculiar to 
native words. Hence the loss of poetic power, and the 
necessity fully realized by our later poets of a recurrence 
to the fountain-head, to a greater use of Saxon terms, 
and the reviving of old words from earlier authors. The 
first rule for strength and energy of style-, is that there 
1 Third Lecture, Second Series, p. 95. 



36 ELEMENTS OF THE 

should always be the greatest amount of thought for a 
given amount of sound. Hence the loss of power by the 
substitution of polysyllables for simple and monosyllabic 
words. 

Anglo-Saxon grammar turned upon the use of inflec- 
tions. Its syntax belongs to that of the inflected lan- 
guages. Its grammar, therefore, so far as dependent on 
its system of inflections, passed away without sensible 
influence on modern English. 

The pronunciation was never settled. Although a 
common' language prevailed from the blending together 
of the different dialects, yet each word naturally re- 
tained its peculiar form of pronunciation. This is man- 
ifest from the great variety in orthography. Words 
were evidently spelled as pronounced, or as nearly so as 
different writers could agree in the absence of any ac- 
credited standard. Some words are found spelled in a 
dozen or more different ways, and differently in diff'erent 
ages. Writers often confounded letters, and used them 
indifi^erently for each other ; transposed, substituted, or 
added vowels and consonants at their pleasure. In view 
of this fact, little can be hoped from attempts to fix our 
English pronunciation from the usage of our Saxon pro- 
genitors.-^ 

In the inflection of its words, the Anglo-Saxon agrees 
in the main with other members of the Gothic family of 
languages. It stands about midway between the classic 
tongues and modern English. Grammarians are not 
agreed in their classification of the parts of speech and 
the forms of declension and conjugation. The definite 
article — used also for the demonstrative and relative pro- 
noun as in the German language and the adjective are 

1 Klipstein, A.-S. Grammar, p. 35. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 37 

declined in three genders, and in both numbers. From 
the article are derived the English definite article and 
the demonstrative pronoun. The adjective is compared, 
much as in English, by adding re to form the compara- 
tive, and est or ost for the superlative. The personal 
pronouns ic, I ; pu, thOu ; and he^ heo, hit, he, she, it, are 
declined, and the first two in the dual number. Ic makes 
mm in the genitive ; pu, pin ; and he and hit, his. Our 
their appears in the genitive plural hira. Him is the 
dative in the masculine and feminine singular, and in 
the plural of all genders. The possessive pronouns are 
formed from the genitive, as in English. 

In the conjugation of the verb, inflections are combined 
with auxiliary verbs. The present and the imperfect 
tenses are inflected ; the other tenses are formed by aux- 
iliaries, which undergo inflection, joined to the present 
infinitive or participle. The weak and strong inflections 
are found much as in English; the weak marked by 
change of ending, the strong by change of stem-vowel 
also. The present infinitive ends in an, which is pre- 
served in early English as e7i ; the imperfect is formed 
by adding ode (ede), de, or te, to the root, and the parti- 
ciple past by adding od (ed), d or t, in the weak conju- 
gation. In the strong, the imperfect is monosyllabic, 
changes its vowel, and its past participle ends in en. Ex- 
ample of the first ; hifian, to love ; impei'fect, lufode ; par- 
ticiple lufod. Of the second : bindan, to bind ; .imperfect, 
hand; participle, hunden. The present participle ends in 
ende, the gerund in enne or anne. The latter is always 
preceded by the preposition to, and is equivalent to the 
Latin supine and the future participle in rus. The pre- 
fix ge is found with all parts of the verb, but commonly 
with the parts expressing past time ; — the early English 



38 ELEMENTS OF THE 

y as yclept. In the present indicative, the second person 
singular ends in ast or st, the third person in aS 
(ath), or 5 (th) ; the plural persons all in ati (ath). 
The past tense has the endings c?e, dest, de, in the singu- 
lar ; the subjunctive de in all ; while the plural persons 
of both modes end in don. 

Many of the rules for the government of the different 
cases correspond very closely to Latin usage. Relative 
adjectives, denoting want, knowledge, remembrance, and 
the like, take a genitive after them. While those de- 
noting desire, disgust, pleasure, profit, injury, and the 
like, take a dative. 

So verbs of bidding, forhidding, serving, following, 
obeying, consenting to, take a dative ; of ruling and 
separation, the ablative ; of needi7ig, tempting, using, re- 
membering, forgetting, ceasing, &c., the genitive. The 
same resemblance is found also in the prepositions. 
These analogies doubtless refer to an early period in the 
history of language. 

This brief notice will suffice to show that while the 
syntax of the language is quite unlike the English, fol- 
lowing the analogy of inflected languages ; some of the 
forms of the inflections, particularly in the pronouns, ad- 
lectives, and verbs, have been reduced and simplified, 
others wholly rejected. 

It remains to speak of the words the English has re,- 
ceived from the Anglo-Saxon. The first point to be 
noticed here is the remarkable economy of expression in 
words of Anglo-Saxon origin. 

Very little observation will suffice to convince the 
most careless observer of the very great proportion of 
monosyllabic words in common use to express common 
things and common acts ; as the names of the elements, 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 39 

Jire, aivy rain, dew, snow, &c. ; of animals, fox, hear, wolf, 
cat, dog, cow, horse, &c. ; of the parts of the body, hand, 
foot, head, eye, &c. ; for the exercise of our faculties, see, 
hear, think, run, leap, walk, hop, jump, &c. ; swim, float, 
dive, sink, &c. " The fire is said to hum, glow, parch, 
dry, scorch, hlast, scathe. Water is said to flow, glide, 
run, roll, lash, dash, splash, gush, foam. To mourn, sigh, 
groan, weep, moan, laugh, smile, smirk, express affections 

-of the mind. In the sky we have sun, moon, and stars. 
The earth yields grass, corn, hay, straw, wheat, rye, oats. 
Our ordinary food is hread, fowl, flesh, fish; our fuel, 
coal, wood, peat, turf. These, and such like words as 
these, form the staple of the English language, and more 
particularly of English poetry." ^ 

This principle of economy as one peculiar to the Eng- 
lish language, and inherited by the English from the 
Saxon, was early shown in the rejection of inflections, 
and the adoption of the most direct logical method of ex- 
pression, allowing of no delay in the apprehension of the 
thought beyond that required for the utterance of suc- 
cessive words. This tendency was exhibited even earlier, 
in the later Saxon literature, as the translation of the 
Gospels, which exhibits much less of the peculiar syn- 
tax of the Saxon literature than is to be found in 
most Saxon works ; though this was due in part to the 
simplicity of the idiom required, and a close adherence 
to the form of the Latin, from which the translation was 
made. It is quite possible, or rather probable, if we 
were to judge from the analogy of other languages, that 
the spoken language was much simpler in this respect 
than the written, and that there were comparatively few 
inflections, and consequently little inversion. In later 
1 Harrison on the English Language, pp. 81, 82. 



40 ELEMENTS OF THE 

times this economy has been exhibited in dropping the 
sound of the final c, which was formerly pronounced, 
and in blending the final ed^ of the past tense and the 
participle, with the preceding syllable, as loved; or in 
changing it with the letter t, as, askt for asked, accord- 
ing to the analogy of slept, crept. 

The great poets, as Shakspeare, Milton, and later, 
Byron, Mrs. Browning, Tennyson, and others, have fully 
understood the power and poetic beauty of Saxon speech ; 
while Moore has shown its rich musical flow when 
properly combined. 

This principle of economy is still, better seen in the 
formation of words with the least possible expense of 
sound. Take the syllable at, and prefix consonants, and 
then change the vowels, and a large number of words is 
the result. 

Bat, bet, bit, hot, but ; cat, cit, cot, cut ; dit, dot ; fat, 
fet, fit ; gat, get, git, got, gut ; hat, hit, hot ; jet, jot, jut; 
ket, kit ; let, lot ; mat, met, mit, mot ; net, nit, not ; pat, 
pet, pit, pot, put ; rat, ret (rite), rot, rut ; sat, set, sit, sot, 
sut ; tat, tit, tot, tut ; vat, (vote) ; wet, wit, wot ; (yate), 
yet, (yote). By adding the letter e to many of these, 
new words in use are formed. Other examples will 
readily suggest themselves. 

In the examples above given, it is possible that exami- 
nation into the cognate dialects would complete all the 
forms under each letter, thus completing the variations 
of sound and sense within the limits prescribed. It is 
but reasonable to suppose that the completeness existing 
is due to the mingling of many different dialects, each 
of which preserved a portion of the original inheritance. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 41 

Words derived from the Anglo-Saxon, 

These may be considered with reference to their forms 
and their meaning. 

It is evident that most monosyllables, and derivatives 
from them, are of Anglo-Saxon origin. The following 
terminations indicate the same source : — Of adjectives, 
t/, ishf some, ful, less, as windy, childish, handsome, thank- 
ful, homeless. The last two are applied to roots from 
other sources than the Anglo-Saxon, while the former 
belong almost exclusively to words of native origin. Of 
nouns, the terminations er, — not to be mistaken for the 
Latin or, — hood, dom, ness, ship, as writer, manhood, wis- 
dom, greatness, hardship. The last two are also applied to 
words of Latin origin. The adverbial termination Ig, though 
strictly of Anglo-Saxon origin, is applied to roots from all 
sources. As there are no peculiar verbal endings, no clas- 
sification can be made on this principle. It may, however, 
be observed that verbs which make a change in the vowel 
of the root in inflection, in other words, of the strong con- 
jugation, are, as a general rule, of Anglo-Saxon origin. 
In short, what few inflections we have are from the 
same source, as, the ending of the possessive case and 
the plural of nouns, the cases of pronouns, the endings 
er, est, in the comparison of adjectives, and the inflection 
of the tenses, persons, and past participles of verbs. The 
following parts of speech,— interjections, articles, pronouns, 
conjunctions, prepositions, auxiliary verbs, the numerals, 
one, two, three, &c., up to a million; ordinals with the 
exception of second ; adjectives and adverbs of irregular 
comparison, — are from the Anglo-Saxon. Hence the 
framework of sentences, the setting of thought, the 
words most frequently employed, and which are indis- 



42 ELEMENTS OF THE 

pensable to the use of language at all, are of Anglo- 
Saxon origin. The following are the principal Anglo- 
Saxon prefixes : a, he, em, for, fore, mis, out, over, un, and 
under ; as ahead, befriend, embody, ybrbid, jTorebode, mis- 
deed, outdiO, overbid, wwbend, wwlike, undergo" ^ 

As regards the meaning of words, it may be said first, 
that, as a general rule, all names of particular objects or 
parts of objects, all words to indicate the actions and 
sentiments of common life, the language of house and 
home, of the shop, of business generally, and such words 
as belong to the ordinary intercourse of men, are from 
the Anglo-Saxon. Our generic terms are from the Latin, 
as objects, color, motioti, passion, affection, animal, plant, 
&c. But particular objects of sense or thought, as sun, 
moon, hill, house, wood, stream, &c. ; particular colors, hlue, 
green, red, &c. ; particular motions, run, leap, walh,fly, &c. ; 
particular passions, love, hate, &c., are Anglo-Saxon. 
The language of classification, when first applied to An- 
glo-Saxon material, was applied by scholars, and had 
already become fixed in another tongue. 

The number of words in English of Anglo-Saxon or- 
igin, has, until recently, been greatly over-estimated. A 
large number of writers have followed Turner's estimate, 
who made some three fifths to three fourths of all to be 
from the Anglo-Saxon. Recent more careful examina- 
tion has quite reversed this, and shown that by far the 
larger proportion are from foreign sources. By counting 
every word in the dictionaries of Robertson and Webster, 
M. Thonmierel has established the fact that of the sum 
total of 43,566 words, 29,853 came from classical, 13,230 
from Teutonic, and the rest from miscellaneous sources.^ 

1 Worcester'' s Dictionary, 4to, p. xlviii. 

2 See Max Miiller's Science of Language^ p. 84. Am. Ed. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 43 

According to its vocabulary, the English would be reck- 
oned with the French and the Spanish, among the Ro- 
mance languages. But judged by the words in actual use 
among different writers and speakers, or in common inter- 
course among men, the Saxon character of the language 
at once comes out in the strongest light. The vital, 
assimilating power of the language is essentially Eng- 
lish, having a stronger affinity to the Gothic than the 
Romance side, yet, after all, neither Saxon nor Latin, but 
English. 

Of the kinds of words in use by different authors, 
Marsh has given the most satisfactory illustration. It 
must suffice to note merely a few of the results of' his 
thorough and extended examination. When he speaks 
of the vocabulary of an author, every part of speech 
is counted as a distinct word, but all the inflected forms 
of a given verb, or adjective, are treated as one word. 
Thus safe^ safely, save, are counted as three words ; but 
save, saved, and saving, as one. He finds that the vocab- 
ulary of "The Ormulum," written about 1225, contains 
ninety-seven per cent, of words from the Anglo-Saxon. 
The vocabulary of the English Bible has sixty per cent, 
native ; of Shakspeare, about the same ; while the stock 
of words employed by Milton has less than twenty-three 
per cent, of Anglo-Saxon. It needs to be remembered, 
however, that many of the words from foreign sources 
are used but very seldom, some only once or twice, while 
the native words are repeated, some of them, hundreds 
and thousands of times, — yet all count alike. 

In the actual use of words, including of course all the 
repetitions, the proportion is in all cases largely in favor 
of the native element : — 



44 ELEMENTS OF THE 

Chaucer's Prologue to Canterbury Tales, 

420 verses, 88 per cent. 

Spenser's Faerie Queene, Book ii., Canto vii., 86 " 
John's Gospel, Chap, i., iv., xvii., . .96 " 
Shakspeare, Othello, Act v., , . . 89 " 
Milton, Paradise Lost, Book vi., . .80 " 

« L' Allegro, Book VI., . . . 90 " 
Johnson, Preface to Dictionary, entire, . 72 " 
Macaulay's Essay on Bacon, . . . 75 " 
Bryant's Thanatopsis, . . . , 84 " 

Mrs. Browning's Cry of the Children, .92 « i 

It is worthy of note that the proportion varies in dif- 
ferent authors according to the subject, — the light and 
humorous requiring more of the native language; the 
grave and serious, more from foreign sources. This dif- 
ference depends of course on the power which the author 
possesses over his materials, and is one of the tests of a 
truly great writer. His command of language is no 
mean evidence of his range of thought. 

The more careful study of old English of late years, 
on the part of our great poets especially, has led to the 
revival of many old Anglo-Saxon words, and to a greater 
use of this portion of our vocabulary. It is due, also, in 
part, to a more healthful sentiment in both literature and 
art, a greater regard for the true, the real, and therefore 
a care for the selection of those means the most adequate 
to its expression. 

References. History. — See Sharon Turner's An- 
glo-Saxons. Pauli's Life of Alfred. Thierry, Conquete 
de I'Angleterre. 

Literature. — Turner's Anglo-Saxons, vol. iii. Cony- 
beare's Illustrations of Anglo-Saxon Poetry. Longfellow's 

1 See much larger table,— Marsh, First Series, pp. 124 et seq. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 45 

Poets and Poetry of Europe. Marsh's Lectures, both 
series. Craik's History of the English Language and 
Literature. Spalding's English Literature. 

Language. — Latham on the English Language. 
Preface to Bosworth's Anglo-Saxon Dictionary. Pref- 
ace to Worcester's Quarto Dictionary. Harrison on 
the English Language. MuUer's Science of Language. 
.And particularly Marsh's Lectures. 



46 ELEMENTS OF THE 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE DANISH ELEMENT. — THE NORMANS. 

First Appearance of the Danes — Origin and Character — Hate 
of Christians — Extent of their Conquests — Eecognized by 
"WilUam the Conqueror — Become civilized — Affect the Char- 
acter of the Anglo-Saxons — Deepened the Love of Maritime 
Adventure — Nelson — Language, as affected by the Danes — 
Eew "Words introduced by them — The Normans in France — 
Early Culture — Two Dialects of the French — Arab Learning 
and Influence — The Norman Conquest — Radical Difference 
in Character between the Normans and the Saxons, as seen 
in later times — No attempt to extirpate the old Language 

— Results of the Conquest as summed up by Craik — Use of 
the Latin, Norman, and Saxon Languages — Earl of Arundel 

— Anglo-Norman — Earliest Enghsh — Extent of Norman In- 
fluence on the Language during the first two Centuries of Nor- 
man Rule. 

The Danish Element. 

It was about a century and a half after their adoption 
of Christianity and settled abodes, that the Saxons were 
startled by the piratical expeditions of the Norsemen. 
" It was in the year 787," observes Thierry,^ " that some 
strangers came in three vessels, and landed at one of the 
seaports of the eastern coast. The Saxon magistrate 
went down to meet them, to learn whence they came and 

1 Conquete de VAngUtcrre., vol. i. p. 106. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 47 

their wishes. The strangers quietly allow him to ap- 
proach within their reach, then suddenly fall upon him 
and his retinue, plunder the neighboring houses, and sail 
away." Such was the first appearance in England of 
the pirates of the north, called Danes, or Norraands 
(men of the north), according as they came from the 
Isles of the Baltic, or the mountainous coasts of Norway. 
They belonged to the Scandinavian branch of the Gothic 
family. They sprung, therefore, from the same prim- 
itive race as the Anglo-Saxons and the Franks. They 
spoke a language intelligible in the main to both; but 
this sign of ancient fraternity saved from their hostile 
incursions neither Saxon Britain nor Frankish Gaul, 
nor even the territory beyond the Rhine, still inhabited 
by men of the Teutonic race and language. The con- 
version of the Teutonic tribes of the south to the 
Christian faith had broken all ties between them and the 
Teutons of the north. The Northman of the eighth cen- 
tury still gloried in the title, " Son of Odin," and treated 
as bastards and renegades the German children of the 
Church. He made no distinction between them and the 
people they had conquered, and whose religion they had 
adopted. Anglo-Saxon, Frank, Gaul, or Latin, were all 
the same to him who had remained faithful to the ancient 
gods of Germany. Religious fanaticism and the honor 
of his Fatherland were allied in the soul of the Scandi- 
navian to an impetuosity that knew no law, and a 
thirst for gain that was never sated. They shed the 
blood of priests without remorse, — liked nothing better 
than to pillage churches of the offerings of piety, and to 
stable their horses in the chapels of kings. On one 
occasion, after laying waste with fire and sword one of 
the Christian towns, "We have chanted mass," said 



48 ELEMENTS OF THE 

they, " with our lances ; it began at early dawn and it 
has lasted all day." Such were the men who now pre- 
pared to find homes on English soil, and to add one more 
element to the already mixed blood of the English race. 
It must suffice to remark that almost on their first ap- 
pearance they made complete conquest of the kingdom 
of Northumberland, or England north of the Humber, 
which they continued to hold under independent Danish 
kings till 953. In Domesday Book,^ made under the 
direction of William the Conqueror, and giving a de- 
scription of the lands of the kingdom allotted among his 
followers, the lands of Northumberland were not included 
as forming a part of his Saxon conquests. They were 
already in the hands of his kinsmen, who had taken pos- 
session of them at about the same time that his ancestors 
had established themselves in the north of France, and 
he acknowledged the relationship. The inhabitants of 
this northern portion of England sufficiently vindicated 
their Danish blood for centuries by their restless spirit, 
and the constant trouble they gave English sovereigns, 
till finally repressed by the stern discipline of the House 
of Tudor. The Danes also settled so largely along the 
eastern coast, from the Thames to the Humber, that the 
population of this section was for a long period under 
Danish rather than Saxon laws. In fact for more than 
two centuries prior to the Norman Conquest in 1066, 
the laws of the Northmen prevailed over full one half 
of England, and from 1003 to 1041, for four succes- 
sive reigns, the whole of England was under Danish 
kings. 

After gaining a lodgment in the Island, the Danes 
were never expelled. Their temporary reverses re- 

1 See Harrison, p. 30. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 49 

suited only in the withdrawal for a time of their lead- 
ing men. At first, like the Saxons before them, and 
as is the custom of barbarous tribes, they exiled or 
exterminated the native inhabitants in the districts 
they overrun ; but soon attracted by the civilization 
they witnessed, they were content to subdue, soon 
learned the religious faith and manners of the con- 
quered, and erelong became blended with them as one 
people. 

The influence of the Danes was rather upon the 
character than upon the language of the Anglo-Saxons. 
Partly as the result of their improved social condition, 
and more from the influence of the religious system 
they embraced, the latter had lost much of their 
pristine enterprise and vigor as a race. The absolute 
submission to spiritual authority, that suppressed all 
inquiry and independence, the ignorance and superstition, 
the loose morality, the customs and usages, half heathen, 
half Christian, that prevailed in the Church, all acted as 
a depressing force upon the native energies of the Saxon 
mind. The Danes infused new and fresh life into the 
decaying system, and enabled it to withstand the rude 
shocks soon to follow, and to retain a life and potential 
ability that the revival of a purer faith at a later day 
was to quicken into a more glorious civilization and 
culture. 

One marked feature of the Norse character was never 
to die out or be stifled, — the love of maritime adven- 
ture. For centuries this had been developed by the 
boldest excursions and ventures into every sea, and 
though for a time checked by the same untoward in- 
fluences that had checked the progress of the Saxons 
of Britain, it was never suppressed. It is more than 



50 ELEMENTS OF THE 

the position of Britain, it is the native character of the 
race, their inheritance from their Saxon and Danish 
ancestry, that has made it the ruler of the seas. The 
last most thorough illustration of the old sea-king, the 
scourge of the ocean, was exhibited in Lord Nelson, 
who, by his indefatigable pursuit of the French fleet 
from ocean to ocean, and sea to sea, till it went down 
before his terrible broadsides at Aboukir and Trafalgar, 
vindicated his Danish name and Saxon blood. 

The language of England was little affected by the 
Danes. Differing but little in dialect at the start, they 
soon adopted the language of the country. Scholars 
skilled in the niceties of dialectic peculiarities profess to 
find many traces of their dialect in the early literature, 
and in some districts of England originally occupied 
by them, especially the northern counties of England. 
There are a few names of persons and of places usually 
regarded as of Danish origin ; of persons, those ending 
in so7i^ as Johnson, Nelson ; of places, those ending in by 
and wich, as Derby, Norwich. The ending by denoted a 
town or village, and wich a station. Hence Norwich, — 
north station, &c. The word by still exists in our by- 
laws, properly the laws of a town, as distinguished from 
the laws of the state. But the extent of Danish influ- 
ence on the language is by no means determined among 
scholars, and it is probable that the exact line between 
the original Scandinavian elements that were united in 
its first occupation by the different German tribes, and 
those introduced later by the Danes can never be ac- 
curately distinguished. 

Latham ^ gives the following specimens of Norse 
words in the northern provincial dialects : — 
1 Hand-booh of the English Language, p. 48. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 



51 



Proyincial. Common Dialect. 


Norse. 


Braid Resemble 


Braas, Swed, 


Eldin Firing 


Eld, Dan. 


Force Waterfall 


Fors, D. Swed. 


Gar Make 


Gora, Swed. 


Gill Ravine 


Gil, Iceland. 


Greet Weep 


Grata, Iceland. 


Ket Carrion 


Kiod, Dan. 


Lint Seek 


Lede, Dan. 


Lathe Barn 


Lade, Dan. 


Lill Little 


Lille, Dan. 


The Norman Element 


. 1066 1350. 



In tlie early part of the tenth century, a body of 
Danes or Northmen, after an unsuccessful attempt to 
make a lodgment in England, made a descent upon the 
north of France. They were led by RoUo, surnamed 
the Ganger, and in the year 912 obtained from Charles III. 
of France the cession of a province, that was called after 
them by the name of Normandy. It extended from the 
Loire to Flanders. The original inhabitants, a mixture 
of Celts, Romans, and Franks, who spoke a corrupt form 
of Latin, or the Romance dialect as it is called, were not 
exterminated, but, united with the conquerors, gave them 
their religion and their language. From this fact it is 
evident that the original inhabitants continued to constitute 
the larger part of the population, but submitted to the 
more warlike and hardy men of the north. The Nor- 
mans maintained a distinct nationality under the descend- 
ants of Rollo, who continued to rule over the territory 
their fathers had acquired, rendering but a nominal alle- 
giance to the crown of France, under the title of Dukes 
of Normandy. 



52 ELEMENTS OF THE 

The Normans soon became distinguished as one of the 
foremost nations in Europe for their culture and civil- 
ization. Their fresh blood from the north had brought 
with it new enterprise, which showed itself first in the 
greater interest in such learning as was then to be had, 
and then in a spirit of conquest, soon to be spent in vain 
efforts to rescue the Holy Land from the infidels. Their 
language, by the infusion of the Scandinavian element, 
differed a little from that in the south of France. The 
Norman bore the name of Langue d'oil, the other Lan- 
gue d'oc, •^— the latter part of the name representing the 
forms to express the affirmative yes. Both dialects were 
developed at an early day by poets, in songs and tales 
of love and chivalry. 

In France the learning which had been fostered by 
Charlemagne had never fallen into decline as in Eng- 
land. The schools established by Alcuin had been kept 
up with some degree of success, though greatly restricted 
in their influence by the disorders of the times. In the 
tenth century, learning had received a new impulse from 
contact with Arabic scholars in Spain. New interest was 
awakened in the classics, and attention was for the first 
time turned to what may be named scientific studies. The 
Arabs had first become acquainted with Greek literature 
in the eighth century. The works they studied most were 
those relating to metaphysics and mathematics, or to the 
various branches of natural science, as botany, medicine, 
and chemistry. For five centuries they cultivated these 
studies with a diligence and success that made the south 
of Spain the garden of the world, crowded libraries 
with commentaries on the ancient authors and with orig- 
inal investigations, and made Arabic Spain the fountain 
of learning for Western Europe. "Thither students 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 53 

were accustomed to repair from every country to study 
in the Arabic schools ; and many of the teachers in the 
chief towns of France and Italy had finished their edu- 
cation in these seminaries, and were now diffusing among 
their countrymen the new knowledge which they had 
thence acquired. The writings of several of the Greek 
authors, also, and especially those of Aristotle, had been 
m^de generally known to scholars by Latin versions of 
them from the Arabic." ^ Arabic learning was one of the 
first and most important agencies in the revival of letters 
in modern times. Its influence had scarcely been felt in 
England before the Conquest, save upon the few scholars 
who visited the schools of Normandy, and especially the 
University of Paris, during the preceding fifty years. 

In consequence of Danish settlements and Danish rule, 
England was already half Normanized, so to speak, be- 
fore William the Conqueror set foot upo© English soil. 
He had only to complete what his kinsmen had begun 
and been steadily carrying forward for near three centu- 
ries. But besides a further admixture of northern blood, 
he brought a higher intellectual culture, and introduced 
scholars and such measure of learning as had been at- 
tained in the schools of Normandy. The Saxon portion 
of the population of England made but a comparatively 
feeble resistance; a large portion of the people were 
evidently indifferent if not favorable to his pretensions, 
which, on political grounds alone, were, to say the least, 
as good as those of Harold who opposed him, besides 
bearing the sanction of the church. 

As an important element in the future history of the 
language and literature, we should not fail to notice the 
radical difference in character between the Norman por- 
1 Craik, vol. i. p. 50. 



54 ELEMENTS OF THE 

tion of the English and the old inhabitants, Anglo-Saxon 
or Dano-Saxon as they might be. This difference is 
due in part to the mixed blood of the Normans, and the 
peculiar development effected in their character from the 
civilization to which they had been exposed oi\ French 
soil, but more to the social position they held as the mas- 
ter-race in England for three centuries before there was 
any proper fusion with the original inhabitants. They 
became at once and continued to be the patrician class. 
A patrician spirit was thoroughly developed in them and 
became settled as a part of their character, and to this' 
day has remained an important element in English life 
and as affecting the course of English history. The Nor- 
man is represented in the English nobility, in the House 
of Lords, in the royal family, in the whole spirit and 
policy of the British government. He is represented in 
the love of rank, in the respect for blood, in all the social 
relations of Englishmen. The Norman is the aristocrat, 
insisting on his rights and privileges, and the opponent 
of all reforms in church or state, and the bitter enemy 
of popular ideas and popular institutions the world over. 
His character needs to be understood as one of the prime 
factors in English history. The other is the Saxon, for 
centuries kept down, subject to all the oppressions of a 
haughty race, his language despised and neglected, till 
at length, making himself necessary to the furtherance 
of his master's ends, he came to demand some share of 
civil rights, and steadily step by step to assume his true 
place, — represented to-day by the English Commons, by 
the English people, — for a time gaining the ascendency 
in the management of public affairs in the days of the ' 
Commonwealth, but on the whole satisfied with a steady 
progress in civil rights, and civil freedom. Strictly con- 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 55 

servative, like his progenitors before the Conquest, loving 
his home and the comforts of social life, devoted to pop- 
ular liberty, but content with its enjoyment within strictly 
constitutional limits, — asking for freedom rather than 
license, — . the Saxon is still radically distinct from the 
Norman, though both are now working together in the 
development of English ideas and English civilization, 
and. the spread of the English language over the earth. 

It is true that the ranks of the English nobility, or the 
patrician class, have been largely recruited from the 
Saxon portion of the population, as the reward of dis- 
tinguished merit in arms or statesmanship, but the re- 
cruits soon become imbued with the same spirit of class, 
which has become hereditary and controlling. On the 
other hand, and as in some degree antagonistic to this 
patrician love and respect for rank, has been developed 
the respect for wealth. This is the badge of Saxon 
worth, and enters largely into the social relations of Eng- 
lish life. These two traits of English character may be 
traced back in no small degree to the influence of the 
Conquest, and have had an important bearing upon the 
history, character, and literature of England. 

There seems to be no good reason for believing that 
William ever seriously undertook to extirpate the Eng- 
lish language, and to substitute the French in its place. 
On the other hand it is recorded that at first he under- 
took to learn it, so as to understand appeals made to him, 
till his other engagements interfered. 

The consequences of this revolution are briefly sum- 
med up by Craik,^ as follows : — 

" 1. A French-speaking royal family was placed upon 
the throne, surrounded of course by a French-speaking 
1 Outlines of the History of the English Language, p. 46. 



56 ELEMENTS OF THE 

court. Even when the line of the Conqueror died 
out, it was succeeded by another, that of the Plantag- 
enets of Anjou, which was also French. It is known, 
in fact, that French continued to be the language in com- 
mon use with every English king from the Conqueror 
down to Richard II., inclusive, or till the end of the 
fourteenth century ; it is not known that, with the ex- 
ception, perhaps, of Richard II., any of them ever did or 
could speak English, (the native dialect.) 

" 2. A very great number of Normans, all speaking 
French, were brought over and settled in the kingdom. 
There were the military forces by which the Conquest 
was achieved and maintained, both those in command 
and the private soldiers. There was a vast body of 
churchmen spread over the land, and occupying eventu- 
ally every ecclesiastical office in it, from the primacy 
down to that of the humblest parish or chapel-priests, be- 
sides half filling, probably, all the monastic establishments. 
There were all the officers of state and inferior civil func- 
tionaries, down to nearly the lowest grade. Finally, there 
were, with few exceptions, all the land-holders, great and 
small, throughout the kingdom. The members of all 
these classes and their families must have been at first 
entirely ignorant of English, and they and their de- 
scendants would naturally continue for a longer or 
shorter time to use only the language of their ancestors. 

" 3. French soon came to be exclusively the language 
of oral pleadings, at least in all the superior courts. It 
could not well be otherwise, while the judges in these 
courts were all Normans. Neither laws nor deeds, how- 
ever, were ever drawn up in French till more than a cen- 
tury and a half after the conquest ; all the new laws that 
were promulgated were in Latin till after the accession of 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 57 

Edward I. (in 1272), when they began to be sometimes 
in Latin, sometimes in French. Even the judgments or 
decisions of the courts, in which the pleadings were in 
French, were not always enrolled in that language, but 
often in Latin. And the charters granted by the Nor- 
man kings were frequently in English down to the acces- 
sion of Henry IL (in 1154), when Latin was substi- 
tuted, which had been the language uniformly employed 
for the same purpose down to the time of Alfred the 
Great." (Abridged.) 

The results were, that Latin continued to be the lan- 
guage of learned works, and Norman French became 
the language of popular and fashionable literature, to the 
entire exclusion, for a time, of the Saxon dialect. The 
French language must have been learned and understood 
by many of the native population. At the beginning of 
the fourteenth century, there was no English taught in 
the schools, but children first learned French, and through 
this the Latin. This practice was introduced at the Con- 
quest, and was kept up till past the middle of the four- 
teenth century. The teachers were mainly foreigners 
and churchmen, and commonly unacquainted with Eng- 
lish. The native dialect was banished to the rural dis- 
tricts, and was recognized only as the language of the 
peasantry and the lower classes generally. But the 
necessary intercourse between the conquerors and the 
conquered soon developed a common medium of dis- 
course, a sort of Anglo-Norman jargon at first, as we 
may well believe. The spoken French was, as it still is 
to a great degree, an uninflected language, and with a 
comparatively simple order of words in its syntax. The 
Saxon now fully settled, could easily part with its pecu- 
liarities, when the only purpose of its use was the utter- 



58 ELEMENTS OF THE 

ance of thought, without care for niceties of speech or 
grammatical rules. The nobles on their estates soon, to 
a great degree secluded, from the inconvenience of trav- 
elling and intercourse with others, would necessarily 
learn the language of their peasantry, and erelong we 
find some of the nobility knowing no other language. 
Of this we have an instance in the case of the Earl of 
Arundel and other noblemen, on an embassy to the Pope 
in 1164, who, after his colleague, the bishop, had spoken 
in Latin, stood up and spoke in English, — beginning his 
speech with the words : " We, who are illiterate laymen, 
do not understand one word of what the bishops have 
said to your holiness." ^ This English must have been 
much after the character of the later portion of the old 
Saxon Chronicle closed in 1154, or perhaps, more prob- 
ably, of the Anglo-Norman jargon, traces of which, as a 
separate dialect, continued for a long period. It is ob- 
vious, however, from the earliest specimens of English 
so-called, that by far the larger proportion of words was 
Saxon. The subjects on which it was employed were 
Saxon, the Norman ideas to be introduced were few, and 
left but little trace on the dialect employed. By the 
dropping of its inflections, the Saxon would naturally 
fall into the present order in the collocation of its words. 
But the marked difference in spirit between the two 
classes, and the bitter enmity long cherished in the heart 
of the Saxon towards the invader, were sufficient to keep 
alive the old language, in its verbal forms, if not in the 
original idiom and syntax. But few words of Norman 
or Latin origin found their way into the language during 
the first two centuries of Norman rule, — very few, consid- 
ering the general prevalence of French and Latin in all 
^ Quoted by Craik, i. p. 52. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 59 

the higher circles, and in all the public relations of so- 
ciety. These few were almost without exception such as 
appKed to objects of traffic between the two classes, event- 
ually resulting in synonymes or nicer discriminations in 
the later speech ; or such terms as were connected with 
the feudal system, relating to war and chivalry, law terms, 
and some few from the service of the church. The 
words properly of Latin origin will be noticed under 
their appropriate head. Of the first class are the Nor- 
man words heef, veal, porh, for the Saxon ox, calf, hog, 
and used for the respective animals when killed for food. 
Of the second class, are duke, baron, count, villain, service, 
chivalry, esquire, challenge, domain, &c. A curious in- 
stance of the partial adoption of a word in a new sense, 
is offered in the use of the words grand and great, as 
grand-^^arent, but great uncle. The first relation was 
provided for by a word of Norman origin, the second at 
that time had less prominence, and came to fuller recog- 
nition when the time for adopting Norman words had 
gone by. 



60 ELEMENTS OF THE 



CHAPTER V. 

NORMAN ELEMENT CONTINUED. — EARLT ENGLISH. 

Gradual disuse of Norman French in England — Statutes in 
English — Final disuse — Duration of Norman Influence as 
a Distinct Element — Else of a genuine English Spirit and 
Character — Gradual Rise of English Speech — Layamon — 
" The Ormulum " — Marsh's Opinion — Vocabulary — First 
Step towards a Union of the Races in the time of John — 
Condition in the Thirteenth Century — Bishop of Lincoln — 
Alehouse Rhymes — An Intermediate Idiom in the large 
Towns — A Saxon Middle-Class — Dramatic Exhibitions — 
Minstrels — Coleridge's Glossarial Index — Changes in the 
Old Language, internal ; Causes — English instead of Norman 
for Historical Themes in the Fourteenth Century — Scarcity 
of good French — Resort to Native Authors — Their Charac- 
ter — Merry Tales — No uniformity in the New Language — 
Plastic Condition — Value of the services of Langlande and 
Chaucer — Chaucer's Vocabulary, according to Marsh — Wyc- 
liflfe and his School — Beginning of Modern English. 

Norman French, as a language in popular use, fell 
into discredit in consequence of the Anti-French feeling 
engendered by the wars with France in the fourteenth 
century. The intercourse, which had been so extensive 
up to this time, in great measure ceased. The sons of 
the nobility no longer visited France for their education. 
French was soon discontinued in the schools at home, 
probably about the year 1350. This was due, in the 
first instance, to the patriotic efforts of a grammar-school 
master, John Cornwall by name, and his pupil Richard 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 61 

Pencriche. As early as 1362 it was ordered in Parlia- 
ment that all trials should thereafter be conducted in 
English, on the ground that the French tongue was be- 
coming much unknown in the realm, and because of the 
manifest propriety that the parties in suit should under- 
stand what was said for or against them by the advocates. 
This law evidences a new spirit in Parliament : it was 
not Norman, but English, in its tone, and marks the open- 
ing 'of a new era in English history. Yet this statute 
was in French, as all the statutes were for a century 
longer, — the form continuing after a radical change of 
spirit had been effected. The first in English was in the 
first year of Henry VII. (1485). It was not till four 
years after that English came into exclusive use. In 
the House of Lords, French was used to a still later date, 
as was to have been expected from its Norman blood. 
Some of the parliamentary forms are still in that lan- 
guage. Keports of law cases continued to be drawn up 
in French till the middle of the seventeenth century ; 
nor did the use of the language for legal purposes cease 
till some time after the beginning of the eighteenth.-^ 

But the Norman element as such, as a distinct and 
foreign element, unnaturalized on English soil, was limit- 
ed to about three centuries. At the expiration of this 
period, it coalesced with the Saxon in the formation of 
English, — English character, English speech, English 
nationality. Whatever did not unite in this organic 
union may be regarded as French, — the same in kind 
and character as the later French, — a properly foreign 
element ; as much so as the Italian or Spanish. Hith- 
erto the two elements, Saxon and Norman, had each 
preserved to a remarkable degree their distinctive pecu- 

1 See Craik, Outlines, pp. 81, 82. 
4 



62 ELEMENTS OF THE 

liarities in both language and character. For the first 
century they seem to have existed in mutual repulsion, 
in the second in a state of indifference, and in the third 
to Lave been gradually attracted toward each other, the 
Saxon gaining the respect of the Norman by his substan- 
tial worth, and growing wealth and power, at the same 
time dropping the peculiarities of his national idiom ; 
and the Norman becoming more and more isolated from 
his kinsmen across the channel, and realizing the value 
of a hearty union, or at least of friendly relations with 
the members of his own household. Up to the time of 
fusion, which may be stated in general terms at the year 
1350, but a very small interchange of words had taken 
place between the dialects ; but the Saxon now had the 
advantage, because of the national antipathy against the 
French, and the casting off of its local peculiarities, so 
to speak, for a more universal idiom, so that it could 
readily adopt and assimilate such words from the French 
as were necessary to complete its vocabulary. The result 
was a radically new language, — new in grammar, and 
new to a great extent in its vocabulary, if the vocabulary 
be regarded as a whole. The words in use were of 
simpler orthography in many cases ; some in each dialect 
had been dropped, and a new vocabulary constructed, or 
rather had been allowed to grow up out of the remainder. 
In the work of Layamon, written, it is supposed, about 
1185, the decay of the old Saxon forms is manifest ; the 
grammar is evidently breaking up, though more than half 
of the forms are of the Saxon prior to the conquest. But 
the words in use are, almost without exception, Saxon. 
In the Ormulum, written about a half-century later, it 
is said that there is hardly a trace of the old Saxon gram- 
mar ; but it is not English altogether, or rather it is 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 63 

English in the rough, crude, unsettled. The require- 
ments of verse, however, prevent us from knowing how 
the author would have written, had he attempted prose. 
His peculiar method of spelling, the practice of doubling 
the consonants at the close of short syllables, to which he 
adheres with far greater uniformity than any other of the 
early writers, are proof of the state of flux in which the 
language was at the time. His words, too, are almost ex- 
clusively Saxon. Marsh regards it as " uncorrupted by 
any considerable mixture of foreign ingredients ; for we 
discover no traces of the Norman element in the vo- 
cabulary, and but few in the syntax of this remarkable 
work." ^ And he adds in a note, " The vocabulary of the 
Ormulum consists of about twenty-three hundred words, 
exclusive of proper names and inflected forms. Among 
these I am unable to find a single word of Norman 
French origin, and scarcely ten which were taken 
directly from the Latin. The whole number of words 
of foreign etymology previously introduced into the 
Anglo-Saxon, which occur in the Ormulum, does not ex- 
ceed sixty, though there is some uncertainty as to the 
origin of several words common to the Latin and Gothic 
languages in the earliest stage in which these latter are 
known to us." 

The first step towards a union of the two races, and 
consequently of the languages, or, more strictly, in the 
development of a new language, was occasioned by the 
tyranny of King John, and the popular hatred of his 
foreign favorites. This hatred was felt alike by Norman 
and Saxon, and the Saxon's long-suppressed dislike of 
the foreigner found expression in a common alliance 
against the new-comers. Magna Charta was the re^ 
1 First Series, p. 110. 



64: ELEMENTS OF THE 

suit, — the foundation of English civil liberty, the first 
recognition of popular rights. Though the share of 
civil rights and privileges which the Saxons obtained 
was but trifling, it was of immense importance in its 
future bearings. This common political interest at 
once had an effect towards assimilating a common lan- 
guage. 

During the whole of the thirteenth century a marked 
distinction was still observed between the Normans and 
the men of . Saxon origin. By taking an active part in 
all the civil feuds of the time, the Saxons were steadily 
forcing themselves into notice, and to a share of civil 
rights. Yet as late as 1280, notwithstanding the rise 
and prevalence of old English in certain circles, the 
Norman Bishop of Lincoln reckons in England but two 
languages: the Latin for the men of letters, and the 
French for the unlettered class. For the latter he wrote 
in French some religious treatises, making no account of 
the English tongue or of those who used it. The poets 
of the time, even those of English birth, composed their 
verses in French when they sought honor or profit. It 
was only village or ale-house rhymers that composed in 
English, or in a mixture of English and French, which 
served as a medium of intercourse between the upper 
and lower classes. This intermediate idiom was at first 
found in cities, where the population was more mixed 
and more on a footing of equality, through social po- 
sition gained by success in trade, or in the mechanical 
arts. Then it gradually took the place of the degen- 
erate Saxon, which, no longer spoken save by the lowest 
and poorest, was as much below the new idiom as this 
was below the language of the court, and of all who 
made pretension to taste and refinement. The Saxons 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 65 

of the larger towns, which enjoyed certain municipal 
rights and privileges, by their attention to trade and com- 
merce were acquiring wealth, and, to some extent, as- 
suming the manners of the aristocracy by birth. They 
formed a Saxon middle class, erelong to be represented 
in Parliament. Thus the relative position of the two 
races was gradually changing, and with this change 
corresponded the relation of their respective languages. 
The political songs of the time, though for the most part 
written in Latin or French, are occasionally found in old 
English, and the relative proportion varying with the rise 
of the Saxons in power and inlfluence, by the middle of 
the next century the larger part appear to have been com- 
posed in English. The dramatic exhibitions common on 
festival days in all the large towns for the amusement 
of the populace fostered the native dialect; and the 
native minstrels and story-tellers, long banished to the 
homes of the peasantry, began to find welcome in better 
circles, preparatory to superseding the French altogether 
in the course of the next century. 

Still down to the close of the thirteenth century the lan- 
guage of the Saxon portion of the population remained in 
great measure pure. Of the eight thousand words given 
in Coleridge's " Glossarial Index," only some twelve to 
fifteen per cent., according to Marsh, are of Latin or 
Norman origin. Many of these were taken directly 
from Latin ecclesiastical works, though conformed to the 
method of Norman derivation. Many of these again 
were but little used. Indeed we are told that not more 
than four or five per cent, of the words of any author 
of this century were of foreign origin. The loss of in- 
flections was made up by the greater use of auxiliary 
verbs and particles. The syntax of the Ormulum, which 



66 ELEaiENTS OF THE 

is the best developed of any work of this period, differs 
but little from modern English. 

The old vocabulary, the substance of the language, 
was not changed. Only the grammatical form had been 
broken up, decomposed, and changed from the synthetic 
form of the old Saxon to the analytic of modern English. 
There was thus a genuine English language, as opposed 
both to the old Saxon and to the Norman, — sufficiently 
developed and settled to be able to receive and incor- 
porate the immense additions soon to be made from the 
Norman, and, at a later day, from every language with 
which it came in contact. This change from the old 
Saxon was begun by the Danish conquest and consum- 
mated by the Norman. It was so far a change in the 
language itself, not the result of fusion with any other, or 
as the result of the incorporation of forms or words from 
any other. This was the old English. 

The change in this, effected by the introduction of 
French words, was made by those whose language was 
originally French, and by those who gladly copied from 
the French upon the fusion of the two races, Saxon 
and Norman, during the fourteenth century. 

After the close of the thirteenth century most of those, 
whether in town or cloister, who had taste or talent for 
literature, undertook to treat in English those historical 
or imaginative themes that had previously been restrict- 
ed to the Norman tongue. A great number of attempts 
of this sort appeared one after another in the first half 
of the fourteenth century. A part of the poets of this 
period, those especially who sought the favor of the 
higher classes, made French verses ; others, content with 
the approbation of the middle classes, labored for them in 
the native dialect ; others, uniting both languages in the 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 67 

same kind of verse, changed them in alternate couplets, 
and sometimes with every other verse.^ By degrees the 
scarcity of good French books composed in England be- 
came such that the higher classes were obliged to obtain 
from France the romances or narratives in verse with 
which to amuse themselves during their long evenings, 
and the ballads for festive occasions. The war and the 
rivalry of Edward's time inspired a mutual aversion be- 
tween the nobility of the two nations, diminished the 
attraction of literature imported from France, and 
compelled those delicate in matters of national honor to 
be content with home productions. Those who lived in 
London and frequented the court still found something 
to satisfy their taste for the poesy and language of their 
ancestors ; but the nobles and gentry who lived retired in 
their castles, or where a large number of persons speak- 
ing French could not easily be assembled, were obliged, 
for want of something to amuse them, to resort to au- 
thors in the native dialect. 

These authors were distinguished from those who wrote 
for the court and nobility, by their esteem for peasants, 
laborers, and mechanics, in a word for their popular demo- 
cratic spirit. Writers in*French commonly treated these 
classes with contempt, — gave them no place in their 
narratives, where everything was of persons of the higher 
class, — noble barons and noble ladies. The English sub- 
jects of the " Merry Tales,'* were the adventures of men 
of humble life, as those of " Peter the Ploughboy," and 
such stories as are found in Chaucer. There was one 
great hindrance in the way of the progress of English. 
It had no uniformity in different sections, hardly even in 
adjoining towns and neighboring cities. It was at first a 
1 See Reliquix Antiques. 



68 ELEMENTS OF THE 

jumble of Norman and Saxon idioms and words. Each 
individual, according to his fancy or the degree of knowl- 
edge he had of the two languages, borrowed phrases and 
joined them together, with such pronunciation as he could 
master. In general each sought to put into his conversa- 
tion all the French he could retain, in order to imitate the 
great, and to pass himself off for a distinguished personage. 
This mania, which had come to prevail even among the 
peasants, rendered it difficult to write English in a way 
to be generally understood. In spite of the merit of his 
poems, Chaucer seems to have feared that the diversity 
of idiom would prevent their being enjoyed out of Lon- 
don ; and he prays God to grant his book the privilege 
of being understood by all who should wish to read it. 
There was thus a time early in the fourteenth century 
when the Saxon element came near losing its ascendency, 
and but for the timely rise of a genuine national senti- 
ment, and of writers to embody it in works that should 
command general regard, and be enabled thereby to 
harmonize the discordant elements, the English might 
have become essentially a Komance language. It is 
important to understand the peculiarly plastic, though 
chaotic condition of English speech at this juncture, in 
order to understand aright the rise and development of 
our modern English, and the real service rendered to 
letters by Chaucer and his compeers. The language was 
in a state of mixture, mechanical mixture, — not yet 
in chemical, or more strictly organic, union. The mate- 
rials were present, but the principle of life was wanting. 
The way was fully prepared for the presence of a higher 
organific power that should come forth from a truly 
national spirit, capable of subjecting to itself all mere 
local and accidental peculiarities of character and speech. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 69 

and this was found in the age of Edward III. Ineffec- 
tual attempts, worthy of all honor, there had been, as the 
efforts of Layamon and Orm ; and though it is of course 
impossible to fix any precise date to a change so im- 
portant, and that must have required time to be fully es- 
tablished, yet, it may be safe to say that this change was 
effected about the middle of the fourteenth century ; and 
that the Saxon speech furnished the framework of the 
new language, its grammatical forms, so far as it had 
any, its principles of derivation and composition, its 
formative principle in short, while from the Norman 
came a large part of its vocabulary. The early writ- 
ers, like Langlande and Chaucer, had the command of 
both vocabularies, and chose the fittest words for their 
thoughts. 

As both languages were familiar to most of their 
readers, the occurrence of Norman words offered no ob- 
jection to the general currency of their works, and they 
in their turn helped to determine general usage, and to 
secure the adoption of such words in the new language. 
Fortunately these writers, Langlande, Wycliffe, Chaucer, 
and to some extent Gower also, were thoroughly English 
at heart, imbued with the national sentiment, and there- 
fore little disposed to use words of French extraction, 
where others would answer their purpose. 

From the confusion of speech, incident to the blend- 
ing together of the two languages, in the early part of 
the fourteenth century, the example of Chaucer, ob- 
serves Marsh, " did more to rescue his native tongue 
than any other single cause ; and if we compare his 
dialect with that of any writer of an earlier date, we 
shall find that in compass, flexibility, expressiveness, 
grace, and all the higher qualities of poetical diction, he 



70 ELEMENTS OF THE 

gave it at once the utmost perfection which the mate- 
rials at his hand would admit of." 

" Chaucer did not introduce into the English language 
words which it had rejected as aliens before, but out of 
those which had been already received, he invested the 
better portion with the rights of citizenship, and stamped 
them with the mint-mark of English coinage. In this 
way he formed a vocabulary which, with few exceptions, 
the taste and opinion of succeeding generations has ap- 
proved ; and a literary diction was thus established, 
which in all the qualities required for the poetic art had 
at that time no superior in the languages of modern 
Europe." ^ 

The same author has affirmed that not more than one 
hundred of the Romance words found in the writings of 
Chaucer have become obsolete, by no means as many as 
of the Anglo-Saxon he employed, though many from both 
sources are now so changed in form and orthography as 
hardly to be identified with their originals. 

"What Chaucer and other poets accomplished for a 
poetic diction, and indirectly too for prose, was earnestly 
carried forward in another direction for prose by Wycliffe, 
and his coadjutors, through the discussion of religious 
and political topics, and especially by the translation of 
the Scriptures into the language of the common people. 
Never in English history had there been a time so favor- 
able for the development of a hearty, vigorous speech. 
The national spirit was in all the buoyancy and elasticity 
of youth, raised to the highest enthusiasm by brilliant 
successes in arms, and stirred to its depths by discussions 
on the profoundest topics which can move the human mind. 
And there were fit men, men of largest intellectual capa- 

1 Second Series, pp. 381, 382. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 71 

cities, developed by the best culture the schools afforded, 
and a large observation, to shape the language from the 
mass of plastic but chaotic material into living forms 
of beauty and power. Such was the birth of the Eng- 
lish character, language, and literature. New elements 
came in to modify, to change it somewhat, in after 
times ; it has adapted itself to the advance in knowledge 
and civilization ; it has developed new powers under the 
hands of great masters ; declined and risen again accord- 
ing to the intellectual and moral life of the people that 
have used it, yet its inward essential character and spirit 
date back to the age oC Edward III., and the middle of 
the fourteenth century. 



72 ELEMENTS OF THE 



CHAPTER VI. 

NORMAN ELEMENT CONTINUED. — LEARNING. — LITERA- 
TURE. 

William the Conqueror a Patron of Letters — Use of Latin in the 
Schools — Large Attendance at the Universities during the 
Thirteenth Century — Latin Chronicles — William of Malmes- 
bury — Geoffrey of Monmouth — Latin Poetry — Miscellane- 
ous Latin Literature — Richard de Bury — Roger Bacon — 
The Scholastic Philosophy — Lifluence on later English Writ- 
ers — Theological Literature — Native Literature of the Nor- 
mans — At the English Court — The Language of Provence 

— Character of the Native Literature as indebted to the Scan- 
dinavians and the Celts — Henry I. — Master Wace — The Ar- 
thurian Romance — Character of the Writers — The San Gre^il 

— Walter Mapes — Wright's Opinion — Place and Time of 
the Composition of Romance — Value — Transition from 
Verse to Prose — Chronicles of Proissart — Lord Berners* 
Translation — Separation of the English from the French — 
The Physical Elements of the National Character and Lan- 
guage Complete. 

William the Conqueror was a patron of letters. He 
filled the bishoprics and abbacies of England with the 
most learned men of his country. Lanfranc and Anselm, 
both famous scholars and theologians, successively occu- 
pied the see of Canterbury. The nobles cooperated 
with the king in the endowment of monasteries and 
abbeys, for the promotion of learning. William and 
most of his successors were trained up in the best learn- 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 73 

ing of their times. Still what learning existed was in 
the Latin language, and was mainly confined to the 
clergy. 

It was in Latin, says Craik, "that the teachers at 
the universities delivered their prelections in all the 
sciences, and that all the disputations and other exercises 
among the students were carried on. It was the same at 
all the monastic schools and other seminaries of learn- 
ing." At a later period French found its way into the 
more public schools. 

Few of the nobility, though patrons of learning for the 
sake of the Church, were initiated into the scholarship of 
the times. It was a wide-spread belief that learning be- 
longed to the clergy, and they were not careful to correct 
the popular judgment. Some of the more liberal minded 
ecclesiastics, however, established schools in connection 
with cathedrals and monasteries, that were open to the 
community at large. Some of these in time became 
celebrated. The way was thus prepared for the found- 
ing and patronage of universities in the next century. 
The number of persons by whom these institutions were 
attended in the latter part of the thirteenth and the be- 
ginning of the fourteenth, is wellnigh incredible. They 
were reckoned by thousands, — thirty thousand at Oxford 
at one time, — of all ages from boyhood to advanced 
manhood, and poor scholars were to be found in every 
village mingling with all classes of people. Meagre as 
was the education received, it could not fail in this man- 
ner to contribute largely to awaken the popular mind, and 
to diffuse some degree of culture among the people. It 
led the way, doubtless, to the general movement and 
struggle of the lower classes in the next century for some 
share of civil rights, at least for a release from serfdom, 



74 ELEMENTS OF THE 

to which belongs the famous rising headed by Wat Tyler, 
in 1381, the last distinctively Saxon movement in Eng- 
land. It found expression still earlier in literature, and 
in efforts to secure ecclesiastical reforms by such men as 
Wycliffe and others. 

As was to be expected, the language of literature for 
the educated classes was the Latin. In this tongue were 
composed not only the theological and moral treatises, 
but the philosophical and scientific works of the time, 
and a large number of historical works, — perhaps the 
most valuable portion of the Latin literature of the 
period under review. Craik has cited no less than four- 
teen different collections made in modern times, of these 
old Latin historians and chroniclers, one of them extend- 
ing to twenty-nine volumes. Many of these begin with 
the creation of the world, and bring down their narra- 
tives to their own times ; others begin with the Norman 
Conquest.^ The first, in point of merit, is that of William 
of Malmesbury, in two parts ; the " Gesta Regum An- 
glorum," from the arrival of the Angles and Saxons, to 
the year 1120 ; the second, " Historia Novella," which 
brings the narrative down to 1142. This author ranks 
next to Bede as an original pains-taking writer, — a man 
who had a love for truth, and some critical skill in arriv- 
ing at it in the mass of materials at his command. 

Referring the reader to Craik's larger work, it must 
suffice to mention one more, Geoffrey of Monmouth, 
because of his importance in the history of Romance 
literature. His work is professedly a British history, 
translated in the main from a Welsh chronicle given to 
Geoffrey by his friend Walter, Archdeacon of Oxford. 
It consists of nine books, giving the history of the 
1 Craik, History, vol. i. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 75 

Britons, from the time of Brutus, their supposed leader, 
the great-grandson of the Trojan JEneas, to the death of 
their king Cadwallader in 689. This work has pre- 
served in the best form the traditions of the race who 
were driven out by the Angles and Saxons from their 
former homes. The outline of the story was given by 
one Nennius, who lived three centuries earlier, but ad- 
ditions were made by Geoffrey. His book was publish- 
ed in 1128, and at once obtained a very wide circulation, 
and became the corner-stone of the romantic fictions that 
centred in the person of Arthur and the knights of the 
Round Table. Most of the later chroniclers follow 
Geoffrey with little variation, none, however, improving 
upon his narrative suJEliciently to supersede him.^ 

Latin poetry was not neglected. More than a score 
of names are cited, who obtained credit in their time for 
this class of composition. Of these the most remarkable 
was "Walter Mapes, or Map, an Archdeacon of Oxford, 
celebrated in the latter part of the twelfth century, who 
came to be designated as the Anacreon of his day. 

Under the head of miscellaneous Latin literature 
ought to be mentioned the " Philobiblon " of Richard de 
Bury. As the name implies, it is a treatise on books, by 
a genuine lover of good literature. The author was 
evidently a learned man, familiar with a wide range of 
classical learning ; and he is perhaps the best illustration 
that has come down to us from that period of the influ- 
ence of classical studies in developing the mind, and of 
the culture that was possible in the Middle Ages* His 
work, long neglected, though once very popular, has re- 
cently been reprinted in this country. 

Another curious work of this period, called " Gcsta 

1 See Analysis of Geoffrey's work in Ellis's English Romances. 



76 ELEMENTS OF THE 

Romanorum," is an evidence of the methods resorted to 
by the clergy to convey moral instruction to the people. 
It is a collection of short stories, in some part of classical 
origin, with a moral lesson appended, not always as 
forcible as well intended. Some of these tales have 
been presented in better forms by some later writers of 
merit. 

The name of Roger Bacon, best known by his work 
called " Magnum Opus," who flourished in the thirteenth 
century, is justly held in honor for his attainments in 
mathematical and physical science. His writings still 
preserved " show that the range of his investigations in- 
cluded theology, grammar, the ancient languages, geom- 
etry, astronomy, chronology, geography, music, optics, 
mechanics, chemistry, and most of the other branches of 
experimental philosophy. In all these sciences he had 
mastered whatever was then known ; and his knowledge, 
though necessarily mixed with much error, extended in 
various directions considerably farther than, but for the 
evidence of his writings, we should have been warranted 
in believing that scientific researches could have been 
carried in that age." ^ Yet, he was a marked exception 
to his age. The mass of inquirers were devoted rather 
to discussions in metaphysics and logic, under the influ- 
ence of the prevailing scholastic philosophy. 

This philosophy dates from the appearance at Paris 
of Peter Lombard's Four Books of Sentences, about the 
middle of the twelfth century. Some authors ascribe its 
origin to Anselm of Canterbury of a little earlier date. 
Certain it is that many of the most celebrated schoolmen 
were Englishmen ; as Alexander de Hales, styled the 
" Irrefragable," who died at Paris in 1245 ; John Duns 
1 Craik, i. p. 144. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 77 

Scotus, who died at Cologne in 1308, remarkable for the 
vigor and penetration of his thought ; and William Oc- 
cam, a pupil of the latter, and called the " Invincible." 
The questions they discussed belong rather to philosophy 
than to literature, but have a value for us, as affecting 
the habits of thought and culture, in which Langlande, 
Wycliffe, and Chaucer were to have their training, pre- 
paratory to their great labors in behalf of English let- 
ter's. 

The influence of this philosophy, its methods of treating 
all theological and moral questions, its nice distinctions, 
divisions and subdivisions of topics, long prevailed in 
English writing. Its influence is very marked on the 
language of the great theological writers of the seven- 
teenth century, as Howe, Owen, Charnock, and others, 
inducing in them a prolixity and' cumbrousness of style 
that stand much in the way of their legitimate influence 
upon the mind of modern times. In fact there was only 
here and there a writer that could emancipate himself 
from this hereditary method of treating theological or 
philosophical subjects, till the time of Dryden at the 
close of the seventeenth century. 

The properly theological literature, which was com- 
posed in the Latin tongue, had very little influence upon 
English character or on the English language. The most 
eminent writers were often foreigners, having little sym- 
pathy with English ideas or English habits ; they wrote 
too for a limited class, not for the people at all. Though 
the works of some of them, as of Anselm, for instance, 
have been much admired for their subtilty of thought, 
and read by a larger public in these latter days than in 
his own time, yet they are of little moment to our present 
inquiry. 

5 



78 ELEMENTS OF THE 

Of more account were the Latin poems of the twelfth 
and thirteenth centuries, charged with satire and often 
invective against the clergy and the church. During the 
reign of John political subjects began to be treated in the 
same way, first in Latin, and erelong in Norman French, 
and still later, in the reigns of the Edwards, the vernac- 
ular language was used with great freedom for this 
purpose. These poems, from a limited audience at first, 
in due time came to be popular poetry, and not only a 
means of expressing the popular sentiment, but of culti- 
vating the native language. 

Of little value as the Latin literature may be to the 
present age, it is worthy of notice as an element of cul- 
ture in the Norman period, and in the preparation of the 
English mind to develop a new language and a new 
literature at the fitting time. 

But the native literature of the Normans was destined 
to have the greatest influence upon the new language. 
This was made up mainly of poetry and Romance. 
The earliest productions in French literature were given 
to the world from the courts of the Norman kings of 
England. For near two centuries, the French language 
was best cultivated in England, while the disordered con- 
dition of political affairs in France, in consequence of 
weak and inefficient princes, stood in the way of much 
attention to literature. To this culture in England, is 
probably due the fact, that the northern of the two 
French dialects eventually superseded the other. Both 
belonged, like the Spanish and Italian, to what was 
called the Romance language, which was a sort of cor- 
rupt Latin, from the blending of the northern languages 
of the barbarian conquerors with the Latin tongue. 

The southern dialect, often called the language of 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 79 

Provence, flourished only about a century, when it de- 
generated into a mere provincial dialect, still existing in 
the south of France, though much changed from what it 
was in the twelfth century, when the favorite vehicle of 
love and song, the language of popular literature. 

Something of the peculiar character of the northern 
French poetry was due of course to the Scandinavian 
origin of the Normans ; yet more to the old Celtic 
poetry of Brittany or Armorica, of which Normandy 
was a part. From the latter the Normans derived the 
materials of many of their popular songs, and nearly all 
the substance of their tales of Romance. The Normans, 
even if some remnants of the old British population did 
not unite with them as one people, were not unwilling to 
accept the tales which recounted their struggles against 
their common enemies of the Saxon race. 

Henry I., surnamed the " Scholar," and his Queen, 
were celebrated for their patronage of the Norman poets, 
at the opening of the twelfth century. The earliest pro- 
ductions of these poets, so far as known, were based on 
Latin originals. But they soon turned their attention to 
English, or more strictly to old British subjects. The 
most famous of these writers is Master Wace. He trans- 
lated into Romance verse the Latin History of Geoffrey 
of Monmouth. It extends to upwards of 15,000 lines 
of eight syllabled verse, and contains many things not 
recorded in Geoffrey. His other work was called " Ro- 
man du Rou," or Romance of RoUo, though he brings 
down his narrative of the Norman Dukes to the six- 
teenth year of Henry IL There a^e in this some 17,000 
lines. 

But by far the most important works of this period 
in their results upon the English language and literature, 



80 ELEMENTS OF THE 

were the Romances of the San Greal, and the Roui\d 
Table, the Arthurian Romance, as it is sometimes 
called. The different authors who have investigated 
this subject are not agreed in their re-sults, further 
than to attribute these various stories to a British ori- 
gin, for their substance, and their form and variety 
to the skill of various Norman writers, who wrote 
without fear of criticism, either of the facts they pro- 
fessed to narrate, or of the style in which their works 
were executed. The San Greal, according to the com- 
mon story of the old Romance, derived from some 
of the apocryphal gospels, was the plate from which 
Christ ate his last supper, and was appropriated by 
Joseph of Arimathea. It was endowed with a great 
variety of wonderful attributes to suit the ignorance 
and superstition of the dark ages, and played a prom- 
inent part in the stories of Arthur and his knights. 
Arthur was the hero of British story, who by powers 
human and superhuman, the centre of the strangest ad- 
ventures, struggled for the defence of his native Britain. 
I shall quote Wright, given in Craik,^ as on the whole 
the most trustworthy of those who have written on the 
subject. 

" Walter Mapes was distinguished as a writer in the 
Anglo-Norman language, as well as in Latin. It is 
to him we owe a large portion of the cycle of the 
Romances of the Round Table, in the earliest form in 
which they are known. This first series of these ro- 
mances consists of the Roman de St. Graal, or the his- 
tory of the Graal before its pretended arrival in Brit- 
ain, brought by Joseph of Arimathea ; of the Roman 
de Merlin ; of the Roman de Lancelot du Lac ; of the 
1 Vol. i. p. 124. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 81 

Quete du St. Graal, which is a sequel to the adven- 
tures of Lancelot; and of the death of King Arthur, 
forming the Roman de la Mort Arthur. The three lat- 
ter were the work of Mapes, as we learn from the con- 
cluding paragraph of the Mort Arthur, and from a later 
writer of another branch of the series, Helie de Borron, 
who completed the Roman de Tristam, in the reign of 
Henry III. These authorities appear to intimate that 
Mapes translated his romances from a Latin original, 
which is distinctly stated in some of the manuscripts ; 
but we have no other evidence of the existence of such 
an original, and it is probable that a great part of the in- 
cidents of the story was the work of the writer's own 
imagination, the whole being founded on popular legends 
then floating about." 

Wright further adds, that the manuscripts contain- 
ing these romances belong to the latter half of the thir- 
teenth, or the first part of the fourteenth century. It 
is believed, however, that these metrical romances in the 
French tongue were written freely in England, as well as 
in France, during the whole of the thirteenth and four- 
teenth centuries. They were often referred to Latin 
originals, or to pretended and real historical sources, in 
order to obtain greater credit with their readers; and 
towards the latter portion of the time they began to be 
written in prose, because prose was thought to be true, 
while verse had been found false. For centuries these 
stories, made up of the strangest and most incredible 
as well as incongruous material, half heathen, half Chris- 
tian, with scenes and characters of classic story brought 
into juxtaposition with northern legends, mediaeval su- 
perstition, and Arab fiction, — the strangest medley imag- 
inable, yet often wrought up with some little humor, and 



82 ELEMENTS OF THE 

power of description, though oftenest of the coarsest mo- 
rality, — obtained general currency among the reading 
classes, as well as among the common people in Eng- 
land, They have an interest for us in this connection 
as showing the condition of the popular mind and heart, 
and as a means of culture for the French language, which 
was soon to furnish so many words and thoughts to the 
native idiom. 

In regard to the transition from verse to prose, it may 
be observed that verse was the only form in which the 
romances were written down to the end of the twelfth 
century. In the thirteenth, a few appeared in prose ; 
and it became the common form before the close of the 
fourteenth, so that many of the old metrical romances 
were recast to appear in prose, in order to retain their 
hold on the popular mind. These French prose roman- 
ces do not seem to have been very current in England, 
but to have given place rather to English composition 
upon the same subject-matter. 

In their own day the chronicles of Froissart were 
reckoned among the French prose romances. The fact 
shows that even in his time romance was not regarded 
as properly fiction, but laid claims to truthful history. 
This old chronicler shared largely in the popular love of 
the marvellous, and is more trustworthy as a painter of 
manners and character than as a truthful historian. His 
chronicle is "certainly the truest and most lively picture 
that any writer has bequeathed to us of the spirit of a par- 
ticular era ; it shows ' the very age and body of the time, 
his form and pressure.' In a higher than the literal sense, 
the most apocryphal incidents of this most splendid and 
imaginative of gossips are full of truth ; they cast more 
light upon the actual men and manners that are de- 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 83 

scribed, and bring back to life more of the long-buried 
past than the most careful details of any other histo- 
rian." 1 

Froissart wrote for a French audience, — for the court 
and the nobility, — of war and chivalry, fetes and tourna- 
ments, of high-born dames and noble ladies. There is 
nothing English or Saxon in him. Yet his work is of 
the utmost value to us, to show the spirit of one portion 
of our mixed English blood, and that just at the point 
of union with the Saxon branch. The spirit of chivalry 
never ran higher than in the days of Edward III. and 
the Black Prince ; and it had great influence upon the 
course of English thought and English literature. Spen- 
ser's " Faerie Queene " at a later day was representative 
of the spirit of chivalry, when the reality had just enough 
gone by to become a fitting theme for poetry and ro- 
mance. Froissart has been fortunate in having found a 
translator in Lord Berners, at that state of the English 
language most nearly correspondent to the French of his 
original, and therefore the best adapted to give an Eng- 
lish equivalent for the French chronicles. 

We have thus endeavored to point out the influence of 
the Normans upon the English language and character, 
through their associations and spoken language, and by 
their intellectual culture in the two directions in which it 
was displayed, through Latin scholarship and literature, 
and the native Norman. After the fourteenth century, 
and the union of Norman and Saxon in the English 
character and language, the proper influence of France 
and of the French is to be regarded rather as a foreign 
influence, as much so as the Spanish or Italian. The 
French and the English became entirely separate in 
1 Craik, i. p. 169. 



84 ELEMENTS OF THE 

interests, and to a great degree in tastes and habits- 
of thought ; and have, perhaps, been arrayed in arms 
against each other oftener, and for longer periods than 
any other nations of the old world. 

From this time no new physical elements have been 
added to the English blood or character. Whatever new 
intellectual traits may have made their appearance, have 
been called out by foreign literature, by culture at home, 
or by such political conditions and circumstances as were 
fitted to develop them. The American branch of the 
family has received greater additions from foreign sour- 
ces, and has exhibited to some extent a peculiar national 
character as the result, — though more is probably due 
to the free institutions which have allowed the freest 
range to all peculiarities of individual character, and to 
the largest enterprise in all directions of human thought. 
It is not strange, therefore, that marked differences 
should already appear, if not so fully at present in the 
language, yet in the general tone and spirit of Ameri- 
can as distinguished from EngHsh literature. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 85 



CHAPTER VII. 

EARLY ENGLISH LITERATURE. 

Distinct National Spirit and Language — Early Literary Works 
— Layamon — Edition of Sir Francis Madden — Philological 
Value — Verse — " Ancren Riwle " — Vocabulary — " The 
Ormulum" — Dr. White's Edition — Orthography — Traces 
of Norman Influence — Marsh's Estimate of the Work — The 
Proclamation of Henry III. — The Romance of Alexander — 
" The Owl and Nightingale " — " Surtees Psalter " — " Chroni- 
cle of Robert of Gloucester " — "The Geste of Kyng Horn " — 
Old Sermons from " Reliquiae Antiquae " — Most important 
Grammatical Changes of the Thirteenth Century — Vocabulary 
according to Coleridge's Glossarial Index. 

Until the middle of the fourteenth century, there was 
nothing in the native literature that was really distinctive, 
or possessing national traits, or imbued with the national 
spirit. The various works which have come down to us, 
both in prose and verse, are of value rather as showing 
the condition and progressive development of the lan- 
guage than for any truly literary merit. Any discussion, 
however, of these works in the latter sense is foreign to 
our present purpose ; yet some more particular reference 
is necessary in order to show the condition of the language. 
The most important of these works are " The Brut " of 
Layamon, " The Orraulum," " The Ancren Riwle," " Rob- 
ert of Gloucester's Chronicle," and one or two romances 
and poems. For an extended and careful notice of these 



86 ELEMENTS OF THE 

works, with copious extracts accompanied with valuable 
notes, the reader is referred to Marsh's Lectures, Sec- 
ond Series, and to the larger work of Craik. A brief 
outline is all that can here be attempted, and as only 
a part of the works referred to are accessible to the 
writer, this outline will, in part, be derived from the 
authors just named. 

The work of Layamon has a philological interest from 
its marking the boundary-line, so to speak, between the 
Saxon and Old English. By some writers it is classed 
on one side, and by some on the other. It is best re- 
garded as marking the transition. It is only since 1847 
that this work has been accessible to the majority of 
English scholars, through the pains-taking labors of Sir 
Francis Madden, Keeper of the MSS. of the British 
Museum. He has carefully edited the work, and pub- 
lished it in three octavo volumes, with a valuable preface, 
glossary, and notes. It passes by the name of Layamon's 
Brut, and is a poetical paraphrase of the Brut of Wace, 
a French versification of the Latin history of Geoffrey of 
Monmouth. As Wace enlarged upon his original, so 
Layamon has enlarged upon his, making his work more 
than double in contents by additions of his own invention, 
by episodes derived from current traditions, and by mate- 
rials gleaned from such other sources as were accessible 
to him. Wace's work is comprised in some 15,000 lines ; 
Layamon's in 32,250. 

Layamon was no servile copyist. He possessed much 
imagination of his own, and often improves upon his 
author in the beauty and power of his description, and 
the addition of striking incidents. This makes his work 
much more like an original composition, and adds greatly 
to its philological value. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 87 

All that is known of the author is contained in a few 
lines in the preface of his work, from which we learn 
that he was a priest of a church at Ernley, on the banks 
of the Severn, in Worcestershire. It is supposed that he 
wrote his work between the years 1180 and 1207, per- 
haps completing it in the latter year. There are two 
copies of the work in MS., the one just cited, as the 
author left it, and a copy slightly abridged, made, it is 
supposed, about fifty years later. The second MS. has 
been injured, and is defective in some parts. Both were 
printed by the editor in parallel columns, with a running 
translation at the foot of the page in modern English. 
The value of the second MS. depends upon the changes 
of grammatical forms and in the use of words, which had 
taken place in the interval of the fifty years. In the 
later text, we find much less adherence to the grammat- 
ical forms of the old Saxon, and many forms coming into 
use which afterwards became fixed in the English tongue. 
The gender of nouns, for instance, in the earlier text, 
follows the Anglo-Saxon ; in the later, it is often neg- 
lected. The genitive of proper names in es of the 
earlier text is generally expressed by the pronoun his 
in the later ; Arthures lond by Arthur his lond. Again 
the dual of the pronoun in the earlier text disappears in 
the later ; so too the final n of the infinitive. In the 
earlier, the usual ending of the present participle is 
ende or inde, and only one instance of ingfe ; in the later, 
both are found about equally. Yet more remarkable is 
the fact, that many words and phrases in the earlier text 
had become obsolete or unintelligible to the later writer. 

The launder of the copyist in one instance, in repeat- 
ing eighteen lines, answers a valuable purpose, in conse- 
quence of the variations made, showing that very little 



88 ELEMENTS OF THE 

reliance can be placed on the verbatim ei literatim accu- 
racy of the transcribers of the thirteenth century, or what 
is more probable, that the language was so unsettled as 
to make such variations of no account. 

This work shows, most conclusively, that the change of 
the Saxon into English was purely an organic change of 
the Saxon itself, helped on, it may be, by the presence 
of the Norman, but not as the result, in the first instance, 
of union with it. Consideiing that Layamon translated 
from a French work, it is certainly remarkable that not 
more than fifty words in the earlier text are derived from 
the French, including some that may have come directly 
from the Latin, and some in use before the time of Lay- 
amon. " Of this number," the editor observes, " the later 
text retains some thirty, and adds to them rather more 
than forty, not found in the earlier version ; so that if we 
reckon ninety words of French origin in both texts, con- 
taining more than 56,800 lines, we shall be able to form 
a tolerably correct estimate, how little the English lan- 
guage was really affected by foreign converse even as 
late as the middle of the thirteenth century." Another 
circumstance of importance to be noted here, is the col- 
loquial character of much of the work, rendering it es- 
pecially valuable as conveying to us the current speech 
of the writer's time. 

The form of the verse is characteristic of the time, 
partly alliterative like the old Saxon, and partly of rhym- 
ing couplets. Many couplets occur in which both allit- 
eration and rhyme are employed, whilst others have 
neither. The latter probably depended Wholly on ac- 
cent. The author slides from one form to tlje other 
quite at pleasure. There is, however, more of allitera- 
tion than of rhyme, even including the imperfect or as- 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 89 

sonant terminations. Yet considering the unsettled con- 
dition of the language, the form is one that reflects great 
credit upon the author as an honest effort to give form to 
what was wellnigh formless. 

The influence of this work in fixing the character of 
the language, notwithstanding its merits, was far less 
than it would have been, but for the subject-matter. Its 
object was to perpetuate the memory and exploits not of 
a s'till flourishing race, but rather of one passed away ; 
it was not therefore national or patriotic, like the works 
of Homer, for instance, and failed of awakening a general 
interest, and so of its legitimate influence as a literary 
work of real merit. 

The " Ancren Riwle," or the Anchoresses' Rule, was 
probably written about the same time as the work of 
Layamon. The subject-matter of this too, was not of a 
kind to gain for it any wide influence, and is of interest 
only as another witness to the character of the language. 
It was a treatise on the duties of monastic life, addressed 
to three ladies who with their servants, or lay sisters, 
appear to have constituted a religious house at Tarente 
in Dorsetshire. It is in prose, and thus has a greater 
philological value, as better illustrative of the language 
of common life. It retains quite as many of the old 
Saxon forms as Layamon's Brut. The spelling is of 
a very unsettled character. The moods and tenses are 
both changed, and in many words not at all from the 
old forms. The most noticeable difference between this 
work and that of Layamon is found in the vocabulary. 
" The quantity of matter in the * Ancren Riwle,' " observes 
Marsh,^ " exclusive of Latin quotation, is less than half 
of that in Layamon, but the glossary to the_former con- 
1 Lectures, Second Series, pp. 170, 171. 



90 ELEMENTS OF THE 

tains twice as many French words as Layamon, and 
yet omits a large number because they were thought too 
familiar to need explanation. Much of this difference 
in vocabulary is doubtless to be ascribed to the fact that 
the Ancren Riwle, treating of religious subjects, natu- 
rally adopted the dialect of the Romish ascetic discipline, 
which was in great part of Latin derivation." Some of 
the forms of words would indicate a later, and some an 
earlier date than the work of Layamon. The arrange- 
ment of words, however, in the Ancren Riwle, is almost 
modern ; due probably to its colloquial character, since 
the spoken language at all times was probably far less 
inflected and consequently more like modern English in 
its syntactical arrangement, than the written. 

The Ormulum, so named, the author says, because 
Orm wrote it, is esteemed one of the most valuable 
works of our old English literature. It belongs to the 
early part of the thirteenth century, and was written by 
a monk of the Augustine order, at the request of a broth- 
er monk, and consists of a series of Homilies or practi- 
cal inferences from those portions of the New Testament 
which were read in the daily service of the church. They 
are composed in metre, with occasional alliteration, with- 
out rhyme, and in English for the spiritual improvement 
of his countrymen. They possessed evidently too much 
genuine religious sentiment for the age, and failed of 
popularity. In fact there is but a single copy in MS. 
extant, and that is probably the author's copy. This is 
but a fragment of the work, though extending to some 
20,000 lines. The metre is remarkably well preserved, 
and what is more remarkable still is the uniform though 
rather peculiar orthography. In these respects it is in 
advance of other literary works of the century, while 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 91 

the Saxon words and forms blended with English suffi- 
ciently indicate the real time of its production. It was 
first printed, carefully edited with notes and a glossary, 
in 1852, by Robert Meadows "White, D.D., sometime 
Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford. 

The principal peculiarity of its orthography is the 
doubling of the consonants after short vowels, evidently 
with the design to indicate the current pronunciation. 
It is worthy of note that the quantity thus indicated has 
remained to a great degree unchanged ; and that the 
method of spelling adopted by the author for the ex- 
press purpose of showing the proper sounds of the let- 
ters, is not in favor of the diphthongal pronunciation of 
the long vowels. 

The vocabulary contains but few traces of Norman in- 
fluence, and but few words of Latin or ecclesiastical ori- 
gin ; it has some Scandinavian words and idioms, which 
have led critics to assign the residence of the writer to 
the eastern or north-eastern portion of England. The 
syntax is quite modern in its character, so much so as 
to present little difficulty to an English reader. The 
author seems to have been as careful of his syntax as 
of his words, and in these respects to have shown a care 
and a taste quite in advance of his supposed time. " In 
fact," says Marsh,^ " the dialect of the Ormulum is more 
easily mastered than that of ' Piers Ploughman,' which was 
written more than a century later, and it contains fewer 
words of unknown or doubtful signification. It is more- 
over, especially interesting as a specimen of the charac- 
ter and internal tendencies of the Anglo-Saxon language 
as affected by more advanced civilization and culture, 
but still uncorrupted by any considerable mixture of 
1 Marsh, First Series, pp. 110, 111. 



92 ELEIVIENTS OF THE 

foreign ingredients ; for we discover no traces of the 
Norman element in the vocabulary and but few in the 
syntax of this remarkable work. The vocabulary con- 
sists of about 2,300 words, exclusive of proper names 
and inflected forms. Among these I am unable to find 
a single word of Norman French origin, and scarcely 
ten which were taken directly from the Latin." And 
hardly less important is the fact stated by Marsh, that 
the whole number of words from foreign sources pre- 
viously introduced into the Anglo-Saxon, and found in 
the Ormulum, does not exceed sixty, — showing the re- 
markable purity of the language and the character of 
the changes it was undergoing. 

The proclamation of Henry III. in 1258, though brief, 
containing in all only some 300 words, and only about 
140 different words, is of great value, in showing the 
condition of the language at a certain date. It shows 
no trace of Norman influence in its vocabulary, save 
in its proper names and official titles, but it shows how 
the old grammatical system and the structure of the 
period had already changed into very nearly the mod- 
ern form. Many of the inflectional endings appear 
wholly, or in part, but without their original influence 
on the structure of the sentence. 

The reader is referred to Marsh's Lectures, Second 
Series, for a full notice and criticism of several other 
memorials of the English of the thirteenth century, as 
" The Komance of Alexander," « The Owl and the Night- 
ingale," '' The Geste of Kyng Horn," « The Surtees Psal- 
ter," and " The Chronicle of Robert of Gloucester." The 
first of these works exhibits a larger influx of French 
words than we have hitherto met, sometimes as many 
as six per cent, of the whole number, while the syntax 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 93 

is strictly English. The Owl and the Nightingale is a 
rhyming poem of about 1800 verses in octosyllabic me- 
tre. It is noted as the first narrative poem of a wholly 
imaginative character in the native tongue, and for the 
smoothness and finish of its verse. English in its sub- 
ject, it is also eminently English in its language. A 
fine edition of this poem has been published by the 
Percy Society, edited by Thomas Wright, with some 
other short religious poems of the same period. In the 
Geste of Kyng Horn the number of French words is only 
about two per cent. ; in Robert of Gloucester, four, or 
five, though many words of this class were first intro- 
duced by him into the current vocabulary. The Chron- 
icle of Robert of Gloucester is worthy of notice as the 
most ancient professed history in the English language. 
It begins as usual wuth the siege of Troy, and is brought 
down to the death of Henry III. in 1272. 

In the "Reliquiae Antiquae," edited by Wright and 
Halliwell, are preserved a specimen of some English 
sermons of the beginning of the thirteenth century, that 
compare well with the Ancren I^iwle, in point of Eng- 
lish idiom, vocabulary, and syntax. When the preach- 
er has but a single thought to express, or at most only 
two or three, in as many phrases, the idiom is quite 
modern. But sometimes the sentences are prolonged 
by connections, and different phrases are strung along 
quite in the manner of an inexperienced schoolboy. 

Aside from the general tendency to simplify inflec- 
tions and orthography, the two most important grammat- 
ical changes that may be regarded as becoming fixed in 
the thirteenth century were the plural of verbs in en in- 
stead of the old Saxon endings in S (ih) and on ; and 
the use of the plural pronoun instead of the singular in 
6 



94 ELEMENTS OF THE 

addressing a single person.^ The entire vocabulary of 
the English language of the thirteenth century, so far as 
known from its printed literature, consists according to 
Coleridge's Glossarial Index of about 8000 words, of 
which some twelve per cent, are of Latin or Romance 
derivation, though not more than five per cent, are 
found employed by any. one writer. Of course the 
number of English words in current use was much 
greater than the number here indicated, and Marsh 
has pointed out some that Coleridge overlooked. 

1 Marsh, Second Series, p. 258. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 95 



CHAPTER Vin. 

ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTUBY. 

Rhymed Chronicle of Robert Mannynge — Vocabulary — The 
Forms of the Pronomis — Relation to Ballad Poetry — Theo- 
ries as to Robin Hood — Thierry — Name of a Cycle — Metrical 
Romance — Time and Popularity — Late Editions — Refer- 
ences — Influence on the Language — Political Poems — Va- 
riety of Measure — Wright's Edition — Tendency to form In- 
flections — Example from the " Reliquiae Antiquae " — Date to 
mark the Rise and Development of a genuine English Lan- 
guage — Connection with the National Life — Sources whence 
Romance words were Introduced — First English Poet — 
Lawrence Minot — Poems — Verse — Alliteration falls into 
Disuse — Recent Revival of it — The first great Prose "Writer 
— Sir John Mandeville — Character of his Work — Philolog- 
ical Value — Orthography — Robert Langlande — Estimation 
in which his Poem was held — Verse — Spirit — Extract from 
the Sermon of Reason — The Creed of " Piers Ploughman." 

The first production that merits our notice at the be- 
ginning of the fourteenth century is the rhymed chron- 
icle of Robert Mannynge, or Robert de Brunne. This 
work is a translation, the first part of the Brut of Wace, 
down to the death of CadWallader in 689, and the second 
part of the Anglo-Norman chronicle of Peter de Lang- 
toft, a continuation of the first down to the death of 
Edward I. The style of this work is said by Marsh to 
be superior to that of Robert of Gloucester in ease, though 
not in grace of expression. Though little can be said of 



96 ELEMENTS OF THE 

the literary merits of the work, it has a philological 
value, as showing some changes in the language. The 
vocabulary is enlarged by new Romance words, and the 
old Saxon ending of the third person singular of the 
verb in 5 (th) is changed to the modern form in s ; and 
the forms of the pronouns are more as in later English, — 
scho, afterwards changed to she, and the plural forms, 
thei and ther,^ 

Campbell sees in the form of the verse traces of the 
ballad poetry of the time, into which the old metrical 
romances became resolved. It is certain that ballad 
poetry was now widely prevalent especially the famous 
cycle of the Robin Hood ballads. The allusion to these 
poems in the " Piers Ploughman " of Langlande, as 
better known to idle fellows than pious songs, is evidence 
of their popularity. 

Of the many disagreeing theories in regard to the his- 
torical character of Robin Hood, two may be named, — 
that of Thierry, who regards him as the hero of the Saxon 
serfs, that continued their resistance to the Norman in- 
vaders, even to the reign of Richard Coeur de Lion, and 
therefore was specially dear to the old English heart, and 
justly celebrated in patriotic song; the other, from the va- 
riety of dates assigned him, ranging through a period of 
not less than three hundred years, from the middle of the 
twelfth to the middle of the fifteenth century, denies the 
existence of any such historical personage, and assigns the 
name only to a cycle of poems illustrative of one form 
of English life, that, perhaps, which still delights in field- 
sports and rustic merry-makings. It is possible that the 
true theory will harmonize the two, by uniting the more 
important elements of both. In any case the value of 
2 Marsh, Second Series, p. 235. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 97 

these ballads, as a means of maintaining a true native 
feeling, a genuine home, national sentiment, and of a 
language among the people best expressive of it, and 
which no foreign influences could ever suppress or stifle, 
can hardly be over-estimated. Some value also should 
be given to the poetic discipline to which the language 
was thus subjected ; yet of far greater account was the 
preservation of the true flavor of the Saxon element in 
our speech and character. It thus contributed greatly to 
the revival of poetry, and to the study of old English 
at the close of the last century, which still continues with 
the happiest results upon the purity of the language. 

Other important agents in developing the language of 
the next fifty years, preparatory to the fully awakened 
English sentiment and nationality, and to the creation 
of a distinctively English literature, were the metrical 
romances, the political songs, and many short satirical 
poems. 

As already noticed, the French metrical romances, so 
popular in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, during the 
latter part of the thirteenth gradually gave way to pro- 
ductions of a similar character, sometimes merely trans- 
lations, in the native tongue. English metrical romance 
was at the height of its popularity during the first part 
of the fourteenth century, and continued to constitute 
the larger part of the popular literature for more than 
a hundred years, then gave place to prose romance, 
which continued to hold the popular favor till the awak- 
ening of a purer religious sentiment by the Reformation 
led to its neglect. Since they have become of value for 
philological study, a great number of the old metrical 
romances have been offered to the public, carefully edited 
by different scholars, as Ritson, Ellis, Weber, and others, 



98 ELEMENTS OF THE 

and by different learned societies. In this way some 
seventy or more have been published, ranging in size 
from three hundred to eight thousand lines. Of these a 
large portion belong to the early part of the fourteenth 
century, while some, perhaps, were composed" in the next 
century. 

For detailed sketches of English metrical romance, 
see " Percy's Reliques of early English Poetry," the first 
volume of " Warton's History of English Poetry," Ritson's 
dissertation in the first volume of his " Ancient English 
Metrical Romances^;" so Ellis, Tyrwhitt, Marsh, and 
Craik. 

When it is remembered that by far the largest part of 
these romances were translations from the French, it is not 
surprising that the French forms of versification should 
have been adopted, and that many French words should 
have been introduced in order to complete the measure 
of the lines, if for no other reason. The wonder rather 
is that so few words were introduced from this source, 
and that so much facility was shown in the use and 
accommodation of English words to this versification. 
Although the literary merits of these old romances are 
not of a very high order, yet some of them, as the one 
entitled " Richard Coeur de Lion," edited by Weber, are 
by no means deficient even in this respect. They ought 
not to be overlooked in their influence upon the lan- 
guage, in refining its uncouth orthography, and develop- 
ing its poetic capabilities. 

The political and other poems of the time have more 
of an English spirit, and are more worthy of esteem as 
the first essays of a national literature. The variety of 
metre is very great, so as to furnish examples of almost 
every form of the poetic measures afterwards employed. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 99" 

No better discipline could have been devised for the 
nascent language and literature than was thus aflforded. 

The political songs, edited by Wright, and printed for 
the Camden Society, contain specimens of English songs 
of the successive reigns of Henry III., Edward I. and 
II., that are finely illustrative of the changes the lan- 
guage was passing through. One- of these, composed 
upon the death of Edward I., shows a great variety in 
the grammatical forms of the verbs, especially in the 
singular number ; the old forms still in use, and the new, 
as it were, in competition. The poem on the king*s 
breaking his confirmation of Magna Charta shows a de- 
cided change in this short interval in favor of the later 
forms. In difierent stanzas are found different forms for 
the plural of the present tense of the verb ; in one end- 
ing in " en" and in another, as in later English, accord- 
ing to the convenience of the measure. The time of 
Edward II. was not favorable to literary production, or 
the development* of a national spirit, and little advance 
was made. 

A few writers of this period were in the habit of 
uniting words, particularly the negatives and pronouns, 
with their verbs, much as we may suppose the inflections 
in grammar were originally introduced. This practice 
was begun in the preceding century, and was continued 
through the fourteenth, but never became universal, and 
was effectually checked by the usage of the great authors 
and by the introduction of printing. Such combinations 
can only ^rise in a spoken language, and require time to 
be so completely fixed by contraction as to become per- 
manent. 

The following extracts are from an interlocutory poem, 
supposed, from the writing of the manuscript, to have 



100 ELEMENTS OF THE 

been written at the beginning of the fourteenth cen- 
tury, and printed in the " Reliquias Antiquse " ^ already 
cited : — 

" Clericus. — Damishel, reste ^ well. 
Puella. — Sir, welcome, by Saint Michel. 
Clericus. — Wer esty ^ Sire, wer esty dame ? 

• • • • • 

Mome Ellwis, — A, Son, wat saystu ^ ? " 

This method of agglutination, as philologists term it, 
was frequently resorted to by Langlande, but soon after 
fell into disuse. Indeed, he was the only author of much 
note, that seems to have practised it. 

The year 1350 is chosen as the most convenient to 
mark the rise and development of a genuine English 
language. Of course such an event is not the result of 
a single year, but of many ; and this date is given as, on 
the whole, the nearest point of time that can well be 
given. In the notice of the last fifty years, attention 
has been called to the busy preparation in progress to de- 
velop a language and literature, essentially English in 
their character; and all that was needed was the full 
hearty manifestation of national life, that should take 
up the great mass of material, and mould it into form 
and beauty by a living organic process. The material 
so taken up and transfused with life was to be neither 
Saxon, nor Norman, nor Latin, but English : the metal 
wrought out in many mines was to become the current 
coin of the realm, bearing the national insignia, and to 
share in the national glories. 

11.145. 3 is thy. 

2 rest thee. ^ sayest thou. 



• ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 101 

"Whatever existed," says Marsh,i "in the English 
tongue, whether by translation or by original composi- 
tion, now became a part of the general patrimony of the 
English people, and there, as everywhere else, the learn- 
ing, the poetry, the philosophy, which had been slowly 
gathered on the summits of social life, and had been the 
peculiar nutriment of the favored classes, now flowed 
down to a lower level, and refreshed, as with the waters 
of a fountain of youth, the humble ranks of the English 
people. Native poets, composing original works in their 
own tongue, would naturally use the poetic diction in 
which the productions of French literature had been 
clothed, in assuming an English dress ; for these were 
their only vernacular models. But English rhymers 
were still generally acquainted with French, and that 
language, as we have seen, had already attained a culture 
which eminently fitted it for literary purposes, and made 
it, as the Latin has always been, a store-house of poetic 
wealth in words as well as in thought, and a convenient 
resource to versifiers who were in vain struggling to 
find adequate expressions in the vocabulary of Saxon 
English. The English middle classes, who were now 
for the first time admitted to the enjoyment of literary 
pleasures, accepted as a consecrated speech the dialect 
employed by their authors and translators, without in- 
quiring into the etymology of its constituents, and thus, 
in the course of one generation, a greater number of 
French words were introduced into English verse, and 
initiated as lawful members of the poetical guild, than in 
nearly three centuries which had elapsed since the Nor- 
man conquest. The foreign matter became thoroughly 
assimilated nutriment to the speech, the mind, and the 

1 Second Series, pp. 265, 266. 



102 ELEMENTS OF THE 

heart of the fragmentary people who had now combined 
in an entire organized commonwealth; and though the 
newly-adopted Romance words were not indigenous, yet 
they were acknowledged and felt to be as genuine Eng- 
lish as those whose descent from the Gothic stock was 
most unequivocal." 

But it was not by poetry alone that Romance words 
were at this time introduced into the language. They 
were the common gift of the learned professions, of the 
various sciences, and trades, that all now shared in the 
newly-awakened national life, and all required a larger 
vocabulary. The sciences and trades that were now 
introduced from abroad brought in their own technical 
phraseology, soon to lose its technical character, and to 
enter into the common language of the time. In these 
ways, more than through the poets, were foreign words 
incorporated into the popular speech. 

The first name in the new era is Lawrence Minot, 
who wrote a few short poems, ten or eleven in all, to 
celebrate the victories of Edward III. He is not unaptly 
styled by Campbell the Tyrtaeus of English song. His 
poems breathe a truly martial and at the same time 
English spirit ; and exhibit more of elegance and force of 
expression than had hitherto been attained. They are 
written in not less than ten different measures, and, true 
to the spirit of national unity, unite Saxon alliteration 
and Norman rhyme. This example of uniting so rad- 
ically unlike forms of versification was not followed. 
Langlande and his school adhered to the old Saxon 
rules, while Chaucer and his followers adopted Romance 
metres. But the result was not long doubtful. After 
Langlande and his immediate successors and followers, 
alliteration was neglected, save as an occasional orna- 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 103 

ment. It is nevertheless so true to the spirit of the 
Saxon element of our language, that, with the revival 
of a more thoroughly English taste, during the last half- 
century, has come quite a tendency to revive in part this 
old essential to the verse of our ancestors. Not a few 
of our best modern poets resort to its use to add a charm 
to their works, among whom may be reckoned Tenny- 
son and Mrs. Browning. 

The first great prose writer in the new era was Sir 
John Mandeville. His work was published in 1354, and 
claimed to be a record of travels in the East, but well 
stoyed with miracles from legends, and marvellous tales 
from romantic fiction, duly declared authentic by the 
sanction of the Pope. His work seems to have had 
much the same place in his day as the "Tales of the 
Arabian Nights** among the children of a later gen- 
eration. It had a great circulation. Of no book, with 
the exception of the Scriptures, are more copies to 
be found in manuscript of the fourteenth and fifteenth 
centuries. This fact gives it for us a great philological 
value, not only as showing the condition of the language, 
but as an important means of giving ctirrency to words 
the author first introduced into English. The volume 
edited by Halliwell, and printed at London in 1839, 
contains but 316 coarsely printed octavo pages, including 
the numerous illustrations. " Although the style and 
grammatical structure of Mandeville are idiomatic, yet 
the proportion of words of Latin and French origin 
employed by him in his straightforward, unadorned 
narrative, is greater than that found in the works of 
Langlande, Chaucer, Gower, or any other English poet 
of that century." ^ And what is the more remarkable 

1 Marsh, Second Series, p. 268. 



104 ELEMENTS OF THE 

is the fact that so large a part of the words he thus 
introduced into the language have retained their place. 
Out of the one hundred and seventy-four new words 
which Marsh finds in about an eighth part of the volume, 
only six or seven are not in use now and in the same 
sense. At the same rate he must have added in this 
small volume not less than fourteen hundred words of 
Latin and Romance origin to the spoken English of his 
time. It is undoubtedly true that Mandeville did more 
than any one else to introduce this class of words into 
the language. His familiarity with French and Latin, 
and lack of acquaintance with the stores of English 
speech, in consequence of his absence from the country 
and intercourse with those who for the most part used 
French, and the plain good sense of the man in choosing 
a simple unaffected style, at once explain the number 
and the fitness of the words he thus brought into the 
language. The orthography is in some respects more 
modern, and in others less so than is to be found in other 
works of the time. The pronoun their is not ther, as in 
some writers before him, but the older, her or here^ The 
German sch is found for sh, and the Saxon character, 
which in some authors is written as g and y, is invariably 
z, as zee for ye or gee, and azen for ageri ; so zif for gij\ 
the later if. Yet on the whole the author is more easily 
read by those little acquainted with old English than 
any that have preceded him, and than some of the later 
poets. 

The earliest known original poem of any extent was 
the work of Robert Langlande, as it is generally sup- 
posed, though some doubt remains as to the real author. 
This was given to the world between 1360 and 1370, 
and called " Visions of Piers Ploughman, or Peter the 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 105 

Ploughboy." Professing to give a series of visions that 
passed before him while asleep on the Malvern hills, he 
indulges in a vigorous satire upon the abuses of the 
Papacy, the dissolute lives of the Romish clergy, and the 
corruption of society. The work was widely popular, 
its "allegory well fitted to interest the common mind, and 
its general influence eminently favorable to the efforts 
soon to be made by Wycliffe and other reformers. So 
valuable was it esteemed in this respect that three edi- 
tions were published two centuries later to aid the Prot- 
estant Reformation. There was, however, nothing di- 
rectly Protestant in the work, but a calm allegorical 
exposition of the evils of society, with a view to reveal 
their causes, with just enough of humor and satire to give 
interest and zest to the story, and to make it popular. 

The verse is without rhyme, and the system of allit- 
eration is strictly followed. This sometimes interferes 
with the freedom and ease of the verse, and occasions 
the use of archaic forms of expression, and of many 
words which have since become obsolete. As would be 
expected from the verse, there are less Romance words 
than in Mandeville, while the proportion of foreign words 
is about the same as in Chaucer, and the syntax gener- 
ally is not much unlike his. While the moods and the 
tenses of the verbs had acquired nearly their present 
force, their inflection was more according to the old 
Saxon forms. But the general spirit of the work, the 
thought, is English, rather than Saxon or Norman. It is 
on the whole a hearty English work, and as such had in 
its day, and still deserves, an honorable place in the re- 
gards of men. 

The following brief extracts from the " Sermon of 
Reason," Wright's edition, Vol. I., pp. 79 and 80, will 



106 ELEMENTS OF THE 

show at once the spirit of the author, his English idiom, 
and use of Saxon forms : — 

"And sithen he prechede prelates, 
And preestes togideres, 
*That ye prechen to the peple, 
'Prere it on yowselve. 
And dooth it in dede, 
It shall drawe yow to goode ; 
If ye leven as ye leren us, 
We shul leve yow the bettre/ 

And ye that seke Seynt James 
And Seyntes of Rome, 
Seketh Seynt Truthe ; 
For he may save yow alle/* 

This passage, however, does not accurately represent 
the orthography of the author, as Wright's edition follows 
that of Crowley, published in 1550, much altered by the 
printer. 

Another work, in the same style substantially, was 
published some thirty years later, called the " Creed of 
Piers Ploughman." This is believed to have been writ- 
ten by one of the followers of Wycliife. In this Piers 
Ploughman is no longer an allegorical personage, but the 
representative of the English peasant rising up to judge 
and act for himself, — and the Church is the special object 
of assault. On this account the work was soon pro- 
scribed, and never obtained much circulation. In its es- 
sential features of language and style it is en imitation 
of the work of Langlande. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 107 



CHAPTER IX. 

rOUBTEENTH CENTURY CONTINUED. — WYCLIFFE AND 
CHAUCER. 

Character and Culture of John de Wycliffe — Translation of the 
Bible — Edition of Forshall and Madden — Reference to Marsh 

— Grammatical Changes — Chaucer — As a Literary Man — 
His English Heart — Services to the Language — Marsh's 
Opinion — Language of Chaucer — French words employed 

— Chaucer's Verse — The final e — Peculiarities in the forms 
of Verbs — General Simplification of the Language — No new 
Words from the Anglo-Saxon revived after this — The Process 
of Dialectic Regeneration — John Gower — Value of his Works 
to the Language — The Prose of the Fourteenth Century — 
Chaucer's Prose — Wycliffe — Sermon against Miracle Plays 

— The Language now settled — Limit of future Changes. 

The man who did the most for the religious culture of 
the people, and for the language as a means of express- 
ing moral and religious sentiment, was John de Wycliffe. 
Possessed of an uncommonly fine mind that won him 
respect and admiration at the University, thoroughly dis- 
ciplined in the scholastic culture, classic and philosophical, 
of his time, with a heart thoroughly devoted to the inter- 
ests of religion, and a determined purpose that no oppo- 
sition could intimidate, he was prepared as few men of 
any age could be, and at this, the best possible time for 
the developing language, to use it with power, and to 



108 ELEMENTS OF THE 

bring out its hidden stores of expression, or to add to 
them from the common treasuries of Latin and Romance, 
as should be found necessary. The greatest work of 
Wycliffe and his followers who worked under his direc- 
tion, was the translation of the Bible, now for the first 
time put into an English dress. This was widely circu- 
lated, and had great influence in forming the religious 
an4 theological dialect, that has in substance continued to 
the present time. This version furnished the language 
of the later versions of Tyndale and others, and finally 
of the standard version now in use. The New Testa- 
ment is supposed to have been wholly from Wycliffe's 
hand, and is of more uniform diction and grammar, and 
had a proportionate greater influence. Wycliffe died in 
1384, and these translations are supposed to have been 
made but two or three years previous. It is only since 
1850 that the entire version has been offered to the pub- 
lic from the press. For this the world is indebted to the 
painstaking labors of two English scholars, — Forshall 
and Madden. Two different texts are printed, the older 
of 1380, and a later- of 1390, revised by Purley. The 
revision was carefully made, and has a value from show- 
ing the marked progress of the language during this 
short period. 

The reader is referred to Marsh's Lectures, Second 
Series, for a more minute examination of these versions, 
and the influence and character of WycliflTe. One or two 
grammatical changes only will here be noticed. The 
present participle ending in €7ide assumed the form of 
iriff, while these versions were in progress, which it has 
since preserved. The older versions have the old, the 
later the new, form. The Saxon feminine ending ster, is 
changed to the Norman esse. In general, with some ex- 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 109 

ceptions, the conjugation of the verbs in WyclifFe's trans- 
lations corresponds very nearly with our own. Aside 
from the grammatical forms of interest to the scholar in 
tracing the changes of the language, these versions are 
interesting as a storehouse of hearty English words, and 
of the roots of many forms now in use, and as a means 
of reviving a true and vigorous speech. 

The best representative of the language during the, last 
quarter of the fourteenth century was undoubtedly the 
poet Chaucer, so deservedly called the Father of English 
literature. He was, in the strict sense of the word, a lit- 
erary man. He had a thorough practical acquaintance with 
men of all grades, from the highest to the lowest, and 
had a hearty sympathy, as wide as was his acquaintance. 
At home and abroad, in the various relations of public 
and private life, in peace and in war, he had enjoyed op- 
portunities of general culture, such as are the privilege 
of but few men. Add to this a mind of rare order, a true 
genius for poetry, a hearty love of whatever is beautiful 
in nature, or genial and noble in man, and we have an 
author of rarest accomplishments, and one who turned 
all to the best account. He had command of all the re- 
sources of the language, and a genuine English mind and 
heart to use them. He seemed to have anticipated the 
future greatness and glory of the English name, and to 
have devoted himself to the work of improving its lan- 
guage and literature with all the interest of a true patriot 
as well as of the accomplished scholar. He realized, 
too, better than most men — only as the highest order of 
literary men do — what is truly essential and therefore 
permanent in literature ; and so he freely passed by, as 
unsuited to his purpose, many events and scenes that 
would have absorbed the thought and attention of ordi- 



110 ELEMENTS OF THE 

nary minds. For instance, in that age so much given 
to war and chivalry, he never writes a line in praise of 
either ; he chooses rather themes of common and univer- 
sal interest to mankind, and thus secured for himself his 
true place in the literary world. 

Chaucer first employed himself in translating from the 
French into English some of the more popular works of 
French literature, and in this. way prepared himself for 
original composition. Among these the most important 
was the " Romaunt of the Rose." 

Considering the character of the existing English 
and French languages, it has been noted as a proof of 
Chaucer's English sentiment, that he introduced so few 
French words into his translation. These were oftenest 
such as the necessities of his measure required, and in 
these cases he has often transferred rather than translated 
the rhymes. "Notwithstanding the necessity thus im- 
posed upon Chaucer, as the translator of highly imagina- 
tive poems into a tongue hitherto without literary culture, 
and possessed of no special vocabulary conventionally 
dedicated to poetical use, he was very sparing in the 
employment of French words not belonging to the class 
which I have just referred to ; and he shows exquisite 
taste and judgment in his selection from the vocabulary 
of both languages, whenever the constraint of metre and 
rhyme left him free to choose. Hence, though the * Ro- 
maunt of the Rose,' and his other works of a similar 
character, are admirably faithful as translations, their 
diction, which is an anthology of the best words and 
forms of both languages, is more truly poetical than that 
of the originals. In the hands of Chaucer, the English 
language advanced, at one bound, to that superiority 
over the French, which it has ever since maintained as 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. Ill 

a medium of the expression of poetical imagery and 
thought." ^ 

The language of Chaucer was thus the select English, 
or spoken language of his time, and the superiority of his 
mind is as clearly evinced in his choice words as in his 
poetic imagery. The two necessarily go together. The 
best and clearest thinkers are those who, other things 
being equal, use language in the best way, — in fact are 
the best thinkers often, because of their command of lan- 
guage, since words are necessary to thought. The French 
words employed by Chaucer, with the single exception 
referred to, were such as were already current, with a 
clearly defined sense in the English of his time. 

These general remarks upon his diction will apply with 
full force to his greatest work, the " Canterbury Tales." 
The subjects of these tales, the various characters intro- 
duced, were all eminently suited to the ends of true liter- 
ature, and to the culture of the language. If Wycliffe 
developed its religious and theological diction, it was for 
Chaucer to set forth its poetical, and perhaps still more 
the dialect of social life, the common every-day speech 
of the people, and by the popularity of his works, to give 
it permanence. Subsequent poets and other writers seem 
to have fully appreciated the valuable services of Chau- 
cer. His friend and disciple Occleve called him " the 
first finder of our fair language." Lydgate, in the next 
generation, celebrates him as his master, as chief poet 
of Britain, 

" He that was of making soverain. 
Whom all this lande of right ought prefer, 
Sith of our language he was the lode-ster." 

1 Marsh, Second Series, pp. 389, 390. 



112 ELEMENTS OF THE 

And Spenser, two centuries later, hails him as " the well 
of English undefiled." ^ 

Different critics are by no means agreed as yet upon 
the pronunciation of all the words employed by Chaucer 
in his verse, especially those ending in e. The disagree- 
ment is doubtless due, in great measure, to the want of a 
carefully revised edition, which should be made from the 
earliest existing manuscripts by an editor thoroughly at 
home in the forms of the language as then used, so that 
he would be competent to correct the many errors which 
have crept into the text from transcribing. The follow- 
ing notice of some of the peculiarities of Chaucer's lan- 
guage, as distinguished from our English of the present 
day, is taken mainly from Craik's Outlines,^ with some 
slight chanoje and abridorment. 

First in regard to the e ending so many of his words, 
and often if not always forming a syllable which has now 
disappeared in great part from the spelling as well as 
from the pronunciation of the language. In words bor- 
rowed from the French it is, as pointed out by Tyr- 
whitt, the e feminine of that language, still retained in 
French spelling and prosody, though not now pronounced 
in English, and only written when its presence is neces- 
sary to indicate the sound of a preceding vowel or con- 
sonant. In nouns of native origin it is, in many cases, 
the representative or remnant of the old Saxon ending 
in a, e, or w, as name for nama, and retained to give the 
long sound to the preceding vowel. In other native 
nouns it is the e of the old dative singular, or genitive 
plural, or nominative plural in adjectives, or the sign of 
the definite form of the adjective, — the same in Saxon 
as in German, or of the adverb as distinguished from the 
1 See Craik, i. p. 250. 2 pp. 105-107. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 



113 



adjective, or of the superlative of the adjective as distin- 
guished from the adverb. In many cases it may have 
been used simply to give the same sound to the preceding 
vowel. 

Other peculiarities are the following : — 

The substantive verb to hen, our to he, was inflected as 
is the singular of the indicative now ; in the plural the 
form throughout was hen or ai'en. So in the imperfect 
the form was weren. 

Our to have was to haven, or to han, inflected in the 
present by have, havest or hast, haveth or hath, and by 
haven or han, in the plural. Imperfect hadde, haddest, 
hadde, singular, and hadden in the plural. 

So 



Present, 



Imperfect, 



Singular. 

shal 

wil or wol 

can or con 

may or mow 

shulde 

wolde 

coud 

might or moughte 



Plural. 

shuUen 

willen or wollen 

connen 

mow en 

shulden 

wolden 

coiiden 

mighten or moughten. 



The pronoun / as at present, sometimes Ich or Iche ; 
ye for the nominative, you for the accusative ; they, some- 
times hi, the old form them, usually hem, much like the 
colloquial " em ; " and their was usually hire, pronounced 
as one syllable, which was also the form of the adjective 
pronoun her, and the accusative of the personal pronoun 
she. 

The principle characteristics of the English of this 
period, as illustrated in Chaucer's works in verse and 
prose, were the same that were to continue till the 



114 ELEMENTS OF THE 

present forms in use became fully settled, namely, the 
gradual dropping off of such of the old forms as re- 
mained, and the tendency to draw from the French 
and Latin. The original ending of the infinitive in 
an had been changed to en, and now often appeared in e. 
The inflection of the tenses was falling off, and occasion- 
ally the modern forms were employed. The final e in 
both verbs and nouns was often dropped in pronunciation, 
though still written for a time. The imperfect lovede, 
was pronounced, and erelong written loved. The poets, 
as Chaucer, felt at liberty to use both forms according 
to their convenience. 

From this time forward, no new words were revived 
from the old Saxon speech, only such as were current in 
the popular speech, but not yet introduced into literary 
works, would occasionally be brought forward, but the 
additions were, for the most part, from foreign sources. 
Of the words used by Chaucer and Langlande, which 
have since become obsolete, the greater portion were 
those of native origin. The French or Romance words 
as foreign to the language were selected, or at least used 
with more care. Though thoroughly naturalized and 
welcomed to a hospitable home, there was evidently an 
instinctive feeling of race that was true to the vital as- 
similating power. 

Of the other great poet, whose name is often mentioned 
with that of Chaucer, John Gower, little need be said in 
this connection. Inferior as a poet and a man to Chau- 
cer, his influence was comparatively less ; his language, 
where English, is inferior, more archaic, not up to the 
progressive spirit of his time. Only a portion of his 
works were in English. These were of value, however, 
to the written language, in consequence of the wide cir- 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 115 

culation of his works. In Ms own time, and in the next 
century, and even later, his " Confessio Amantis " was 
highly esteemed when Chaucer was neglected ; just as 
at a later day Ben Jonson superseded Shakspeare. 

Though poetry was the popular form of literature in 
the fourteenth century, it was not altogether deficient in 
prose. The best specimen is doubtless that of Chaucer, 
as illustrated in his " Persones Tale." Some passages 
are' quite racy, and show a fresh, hearty vigor, that is 
hardly surpassed during the next century. The lan- 
guage was used with no little power by WycliflPe and his 
followers, and in the political discussions of the time. A 
treatise against miracle plays, near the close of this cen- 
tury, printed in the " Reliquia) Antiquae," has a rude 
strength and vigor of thought that are worthy of our 
notice, but the language is evidently too much for the 
writer. He cannot handle it with ease, however earnest 
he may have been in his convictions. 

The English language, considered as the result of 
various physical and intellectual elements, was now 
established. The changes subsequently made were due 
to causes already in operation and to such intellectual 
and moral influences as might be exerted on it from 
without. The rejection of inflections, and the reduction 
of its orthography to a similar and uniform system, con- 
tinued for the next three centuries, steadily decreasing 
with the necessity in order to the greatest simplicity and 
power of individual words ; while a true English idiom 
gradually became more and more flexible in the spoken 
language of the people. The latter process was disturbed 
by the revival of the classics and the introduction of a 
large number of Latin words at the time of the refor- 
mation, but only temporarily. 



116 ELEMENTS OF THE 



CHAPTER X. 

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 

General Spirit of this Century — James I. of Scotland — Ly d- 
gate — Bishop Pecock — Sir John Fortescue — Malory's Morte 
Arthur — Its Prose — The Paston Letters — William Caxton, 
the great English Printer — Character of the Works he printed 
— The Gallicisms of his Style — End of Old Enghsh — Ex- 
tract from Hallam. 

The century succeeding Chaucer, the fifteenth, was 
little favorable to literature or to language in conse- 
quence of the civil dissensions of the times. The spec- 
imens, of prose and verse extant show that the changes 
for the better, so rapid in the former period, were greatly 
hindered, yet not wholly so. A few names are worthy 
of mention, as James I. of Scotland, Lydgate, Bishop 
Pecock, and Chief Justice Fortescue. The first two ex- 
hibit a good command of the laws of versification, and 
James I. has a good deal of merit as a poet, though his 
orthography was not such as to improve our English dic- 
tion. Lydgate was a man of great learning, well versed 
in French and Italian literature, and a most prolific writer. 
In this way he did something to improve the language 
by additions to its vocabulary. Most critics, however, will 
hardly concur with Warton in saying that " he is the 
first of our writers, whose style is clothed with that 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 117 

perspicuity, in which English phraseology appears at 
this day to an English reader." ^ 

The work of Pecock, " The Repression of over much 
blaming of the clergy," was written about 1450 ; and in- 
tended as a defence of the church against the Wycliffites. 
It is said by Marsh to be " if not the first, yet certainly 
the ablest specimen of philosophical argumentation which 
had yet appeared in the English tongue." The style and 
the ' vocabulary are so much like the writings of Wyc- 
liffe in the former century, and like Hooker a century 
and a half later, as to be proof of the existence of a 
distinctive theological dialect in the English language. 
Fortescue used the language to set forth the grounds 
of law and civil government so as to give proof 
of much legal knowledge, a clear head, and a sound 
mind. 

Two other works are deserving of mention in their 
relation to the growth of the language. One of these is 
the " Morte Arthur," a translation from various French 
sources of the romance of Arthur, by Sir Thomas Ma- 
lory. Taken all in all, his prose is the best English of 
the century. He shows great mastery of expression, 
a good deal of animation, and, in many passages, an easy 
flowing style, sometimes rising to beauty and elegance. 
His language is conformed to the Saxon idiom, and in its 
vocabulary is more purely Saxon than most writers of 
the time, and he seems to have understood better than 
most the power and beauty of choice words. 

The other work to which we have referred is a col- 
lection of letters, almost the first, if not really the first 
specimen of the kind in modern literature.^ They were 

1 ii. p. 362. See also ii. 369. 

2 Hippisley's Early English Literature, p. 237. 



118 ELEMENTS OF THE 

written in an easy idiomatic style, on matters of common 
life, by persons of some cultivation, and of course without 
any thought of the press. In regard to orthography 
they are of little value ; their merit lies in the easy struc- 
ture of the sentence, and in the naturalness and truthful- 
ness of the style to the matter in hand. In these 
respects these letters have no rival in their time, and 
would lead to the suspicion that they belong to the seven- 
teenth rather than to the close of the fifteenth century. 

Thus in prose, as well as in verse, a pure English 
style was occasionally showing itself, and short passages 
occurring that are in the spirit of a later day, though 
many years were yet to elapse before all the coarseness 
and the imperfections incident to the origin and rapid 
growth of the language were to be put away. 

It was reserved for William Caxton, the great Eng- 
lish printer, to hold the first place in this century, for 
service to the English language and literature, by the 
great number of popular works, translations and originals, 
which he issued from his press. His efiforts were con- 
fined mainly to the last quarter of the century, but the 
amount of labor he accomplished in translating, revising 
older English works, and superintending the press was 
very remarkable. The earliest work known to have 
been printed in England, a moral treatise entitled " The 
Game of Chess," translated by Caxton, from the French, 
appeared in 1474. The most of his publications were 
in accordance with the spirit of the time, works on de- 
votion and romance, with a few translations from the 
classics. He also gave to the world two editions of the 
" Canterbury Tales," — the second in order to do better 
justice to the author ; also other works of Chaucer, and 
Gower's " Confessio Amantis." He was aided in his 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. - 119 

labors by the patronage and assistance of the Earls of 
Worcester and Rivers, who were possessed of much true 
literary taste. 

The changes which the language was passing through 
were well indicated by Caxton's preface to the " Poly- 
chronicon of Higden," translated by John de Trevisa, in 
the latter part of the fourteenth century, and printed 
in 1482. " I, William Caxton, a simple person, have 
endeavored me to write first over all the said book of 
Polychronicon, and somewhat have changed the rude and 
old English, that is, to wit, certain words which in these 
days be neither used ne understood." 

Caxton's own style is not free from Gallicisms, and 
he introduced many romance words, perhaps more than 
was for the best interests of the language, yet his labors 
were on the whole of great value to fix and settle our 
English diction. 

" In following the line of our writers," says Hallam,^ 
" both in verse and prose, we find the old obsolete Eng- 
lish to have gone out of use about the accession of 
Edward the Fourth (1461). Lydgate and Bishop 
Pecock, especially the latter, are not easily understood by 
a reader not habituated to their language : he requires 
a glossary, or must help himself out by conjecture. In 
the * Paston Letters,' on the contrary, in Harding, the 
metrical chronicler, or in Sir John Fortescue's discourse 
on the difference between an absolute and a limited 
monarchy, he finds scarce any difficulty ; antiquated 
words and forms of expression frequently occur ; but he 
is hardly sensible that he reads these books much less 
fluently than those of modern times. These works were 
written about 1470. 

1 Introduction to Literature of Europe. 



120 ' ELEMENTS OF THE 

" But in Sir Thomas More's * History of Edward the 
Fifth/ written about 1509, and in the beautiful ballad of 
the ^ Nut-brown Maid/ which we cannot place very far 
from the year 1500, there is not only a diminution of 
obsolete phraseology, but a certain modern turn and 
structure, both in the verse and prose, which denotes the 
commencement of a new era, and the establishment of 
new rules of taste in polite literature. Every one will 
understand that a broad line cannot be traced for the 
beginning of this change." 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 121 



CHAPTER XL 

THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 

Causes contributing to the New Era — The Period of the Eefor- 
mation analogous to the Age of Edward III. — Lord Berners' 
Eroissart — The Life of Edward V. and of Eichard III., by Sir 
Thomas More — Tyndale's Version of the New Testament — 
Based on that of Wycliffe — The Eeformers, Cranmer, Latimer, 
and Eidley — Their Language — Sir John Cheke and Eoger 
Ascham — Language of most Theological "Writers — Foreign 
Importation overdone — Eeaction — Vindex Anglicus — Eeal 
Value of the Additions from Foreign Sources — Words of 
Latin Derivation direct from the Classics — Formation of 
Words from Latin Sources — Scientific and Technical Terms 
— Farther Eeaction -- Union of the Latin and Saxon Ele- 
ments — Study of Words. 

The new era, to which Hallam refers in the passage 
cited at the close of the last chapter, was due to a va- 
riety of causes, the most important of which we have 
already noticed, — the art of printing. In consequence 
of this should be named the revival of classical studies 
and an improved taste in literature. Other causes were 
the new spirit of enterprise, leading to voyages of dis- 
covery, to improvements in the mechanic arts, and more 
than all others, and in part as the result of the awaken- 
ed mind, the reformation. All these causes led to 
thought and inquiry, and to the more vigorous and the 
more uniform use of language. The effect was not to 
polish and refine, save in a few select minds who were 



122 ELEMENTS OP THE 

not overborne by these influences, but were able to 
master them, as More and Ascham, and the great 
dramatists near the close of this century : it was rather 
to add to its massive strength, to enlarge its vocabulary, 
to develop its rude capabilities in every department of 
thought and effort. The period of the reformation 
was in many respects analogous to the age of Edward 
III. Both were seasons of the greatest intellectual 
activity, of the most thorough and exhaustive discussions 
on questions of law and polity, civil and religious, ac- 
cording to the means possessed. In both was there the 
development of a most intense nationality, of great sig- 
nificance to the growth of a national literature. All 
these various influences were faithfully represented in 
the language. It was still in the hearty vigor of youth, 
ready as at no other time for the impressions that were 
now to be made on it, and to constitute it one of the most 
effective and complete languages of modern times. 

The most important work in its influence upon the 
language of the early part of the sixteenth century was 
the translation of " Froissart " by Lord Berners, pub- 
lished in 1523 and 1524. Its English is as racy and 
idiomatic as the French original, and the popularity 
of the work in its time made it of great value to 
our English speech. The translation is so well ex- 
ecuted that Marsh has said that with the exception of 
now and then a phrase it would be difficult to find a 
single passage that gives evidence of having been first 
composed in another tongue.^ 

The next work that shows true progress in the 
development of the language is the life of Edward V. 
and a portion of that of Richard III., by Sir Thomas 

1 Second Series, p. 498. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 123 

More, first published in 1543. More was thoroughly 
educated, and at home in the classics ; and he brought his 
fine taste to the culture of his native tongue. He was 
interested to do this that he might use it with the more ef- 
fect in religious controversy, and certainly he acquired no 
mean ability in this direction. In these works his style 
is free from the bitterness that marks his other writings, 
and has been justly esteemed a specimen of good prose, 
the best the language had as yet produced, and of value 
to show what it was then capable of in the hands of 
a master. 

On the other hand, More's great rival in theological 
dispute, Tyndale, by his English version of the New 
Testament, first published in 1526, is said to have ex- 
erted greater influence upon English philology than any 
other native author between the ages of Chaucer and 
Shakspeare. It was needed at the time, and at once 
went into general circulation. It was a farther and 
more careful application of the religious dialect develop- 
led by Wycliffe, and became the basis of the later revised 
edition in current use at the present day. Its differences 
from Wycliffe are such as would naturally arise from the 
better knowledge and taste of the later period, not a 
difference in substance or essential character, but re- 
taining the excellencies of the earlier version with such 
improvements as his better opportunities enabled him to 
make. 

For many interesting particulars in regard to these 
early versions of the Scriptures, the reader is referred to 
Marsh's Lectures, First Series, twenty-eighth lecture. 

Some of the reformers are worthy of notice for their 
valuable services to the English language. Cranmer 
ranks as the greatest writer among them, for the full and 



124 ELEMENTS OF THE 

even flow of his words and thoughts. Latimer and Rid- 
ley were celebrated for their oratory. Their language 
was not that of the schools, but of the people. Latimer 
had great popular tact, and knew how by popular illus- 
trations from scenes and experiences of common life to 
interest his hearers and enforce the truth. This fact 
makes his discourses valuable memorials of the popular 
diction of the time. They were of great value to the lan- 
guage, from thus making it the means of expressing in a 
free and easy style thoughts that had hitherto been re- 
served to a more learned diction. His more impassioned 
utterances, which were of course more in keeping with 
the inward spirit of the language, are remarkably like 
the phraseology that would be employed at the present 
day. 

A few distinguished scholars, as Sir John Cheke and 
Roger Ascham, wrote good English, though showing 
plainly the influence of their classical studies. In the 
former especially is found what Marsh calls the legit- 
imate and proper influence of classical learning, — " not* 
the crowding of our diction with Latin words and 
idioms, not an affluence of quotation or of reminiscence 
of ancient history and fable, but grammatical accuracy 
in syntax and inflection, strict attention to the proper use 
of words singly considered, and idiomatic purity in the 
construction of phrases and the arrangement of periods." 
Cheke, with all his learning, would use in his English 
only such words as had been fully established by long 
usage. Ascham was less strict, yet a true lover of good 
speech. 

But the larger part of the theologians and scholars 
were burdened by the material thrown on them in con- 
sequence of the great influx of Latin words from the 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. ^ 125 

numerous translations of the classics, in which a great 
number of such words were introduced, from the de- 
. ficiency of the existing English, and quite naturally 
from the love of classical literature, and a prefer- 
ence for words which had become familiar and al- 
most one with the ideas they wished to express in 
English. Some of the reformers were foreigners, who 
generally wrote in Latin, and when they attempted 
to write in English, which could never be as much at 
their command, they of course retained as many Latin 
words as possible. During this century, and till the 
middle of the next, this influx of Latin words and idioms 
continued, notwithstanding the earnest remonstrances of 
a few men like Ascham and Wilson, — the latter one of 
the earliest teachers of rhetoric, — and others less known 
to fame. The work of foreign importation was decidedly 
overdone, and many good Saxon terms were crowded 
out, and many more words of Latin origin were intro- 
duced than were destined to retain a place in the lan- 
guage. Some of the sermons of the time seem to have 
had a popularity much in proportion to the amount 
of quotation from Greek and Latin authors, whether 
Christian or Pagan, and the words or phrases derived 
from foreign sources, which the common people could 
not have understood. Of forty-nine words cited by a 
curious writer in a paper called " Vindex Anglicus," first 
printed in 1644, in illustration of the abuse to which this 
foreign importation was carried, only two words, contrast 
and mephitich, have retained their place.''^ One need 

1 The entire list is as follows: adpugne, algale, adstupiate, doffe, 
defust, depex, brochity, bulbitate, extorque, ebriolate, caprious, con- 
trast, cotillate, fraxate, froyce, imporcate, incenabe, incasse, gingreate, 
glabietall, halitate, ligurition, lurcate, kemand, mephitick, mirminodi- 



126 ELEMENTS OF THE 

read but a few pages at the most in a larger part of the 
writings given to the world by the learned men from the 
middle of the sixteenth to the middle of the seventeenth 
century, to meet words from Latin roots which never ob- 
tained any permanent footing in the language. 

Yet much of the copiousness of our language is due to 
the words then brought in from classic sources, and there 
was much good sense in the remarks of the writer just 
cited for all his dislike of the "thousand unnatural 
phrases " that caused a loathing in his " curious and ju- 
dicious eye." " I seek not to discredit their worthy and 
immortal labors, who with unmatchable industry have 
fetched hither the best inhabitants of other climates and 
made them denizens in our colonies : these who with 
a skilful felicity have bought, brought, or borrowed 
the richest ornaments of other languages, to make ours 
abound with plenty and variety ; but those I disclaim 
who, when the work is excellently performed already, 
must still be fingering ; and when the quintessence and 
life of other tongues are ours already, must now traffic 
for the dregs, to the end they may be said to have done 
somewhat." " Our language is copious enough already, 
we need to traffic no more to enrich it ; at least not so 
oft, for yet I will not deny but some < pearl or other may 
be left behind uncheapened of other factors, which is 
worth the buying, yet would I have it naturalized here 
with judgment and authority." ^ 

zed, obsalutate, orbation, nixious, naustible, plumative, prodigity, 
puellation, raption, revest, sumatize, sudate, solestick, scracone, sub- 
grund, tridiculate, tristful, wadshaw, xantical, yexate, vilulate, un- 
dosous, vambrash, zoografe. 

" I am deceived if they will not move both your anger and laugh- 
ter." 

1 Harleian Miscellany, vol. v. pp. 432, 433. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 127 

Up to about the beginning of the sixteenth century, 
most of the words of Latin derivation that came into the 
■language came in through the French, much reduced 
from their original form ; and when, as in some instances, 
by scholars or religious teachers, imported directly from 
the Latin, they were constructed on the model of those 
introduced through the French. In later times, as the 
words from the French or the Latin thus changed have 
been recognized, there has been a constant tendency, so 
far as may be consistent with established English forms, 
to restore the original Latin orthography, so as to keep 
trace of the original roots. 

After the beginning of the sixteenth century, words 
were taken directly from the Latin, and this practice has 
continued in some measure to the present time ; while 
words from the French have been introduced from French 
literature, the same as from any other when needed. 
The most frequent occasion has been to express some 
shade of thought first developed in that language. 

A large part of the words of the following terminations 
were introduced during the fifteenth, the sixteenth, and 
the first half of the seventeenth centuries : substantives 
ending in tion and sion ; those in ity, in ance, ence, ancy, 
ency ; adjectives in ant and ent ; nouns in tor^ tory, and 
ure ; adjectives in ary, ory, ic^ ical, ive, He, and ihle, 
able ; verbs in ate, act, ect, ict, and fy, 

" Latin, either in its original state, or as transformed 
into French, is the only foreign element with which 
the Gothic basis of our language has combined to any 
great extent. In modern times, it is true, a vast number 
of scientific and technical terms have been fabricated 
from the Greek; and this is the only manufacture of 
additions to our vocabulary upon a considerable scale, 



128 ELEMENTS OF THE 

that still goes on. But such words do not belong to the 
flesh and blood of the language at all; they may be 
styled its non-natural part, or an artificial appendage to 
it ; they stand in the same relation to its proper sub- 
stance in which the tools that a man works with stand to 
his living person." ^ _ 

The excessive importation of Latin words was soon 
followed by the reaction of the native good sense of 
the English mind. Reasons of a religious and political 
character had their influence. The overthrow of the 
Commonwealth, and the restoration of the royal family, 
brought in an entire new set of influences, antagonistic 
at once to the religious and political ideas that had pre- 
vailed as the result of the learned discussions of the pre- 
ceding century, and to the language in which they were 
expressed. A century later the influence of Gibbon and 
Johnson tended to revive the use of a more distinctively 
Latin diction, yet never to the extent to which it prevail- 
ed during the reigns of James and the first Charles. 
This in turn gave way to a purer Saxon idiom, — the re- 
sult of proper English studies. For the last fifty years, 
both elements in the language have come to be at the 
command of our authors, so as to suit the character of 
the themes discussed ; and neither is again likely to be 
so far in the ascendant as to characterize a period, or a 
class of authors. Both elements are thoroughly incorpo- 
rated into our English speech, and are necessary to the 
full and free expression of English thought ; and the best 
writer or speaker is he who knows how to use both in 
their vital union with the greatest effect. 

Some qualities of style depend on one of these ele- 
ments, and some rather upon the other ; the same is 
1 See Craik's Outlines, pp. 109, 110. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 129 

true of different subjects. Vivacity, energy, and force 
of expression require rather the Saxon elements ; while 
elegance and the more studied ornaments call into play 
the Latin. Still, in the hands of a master like Jeremy 
Taylor, or Washington Irving, it is not easy to run such 
distinctions with much accuracy. Some of the most rhe- 
torical passages in the eloquent discourses of Jeremy 
Taylor, abound in Saxon words. The distinction in re- 
gard to themes is more easily drawn. The Saxon ele- 
ments are needed for the emotions, and the Latin for the 
intellect. 

It is obvious, therefore, that a correct understanding 
of the language, so as to use it with the greatest effect, 
is only possible as the result of a careful study of both. 
Dean Trench ^ and Max Miiller have done a most 
valuable service to our literature in calling attention 
to etymological study. Certain it is that the writer or 
speaker who uses words merely as labels to his thoughts, 
can never use them with power. Another writer will 
seem to charge his words to the full with content, to give 
them solidity and weight. Every word stands for an 
idea, and when duly marshalled and disciplined, their 
movement is like that of armed battalions. This study 
is of far more account as applied to the Latin portion 
of the language than to the Saxon. The Saxon is more 
native, retains still something of its virgin freshness and 
power. Its metaphorical and figurative language has 
not lost its imaginative character ; it still appeals to the 
heart and affections, and comparatively little effort is 
required to revive it when impaired. Most of our words 
of Latin derivation were brought in for the intellect, not 
for the heart, — to convey some one phase or side of a 
1 See Study of Words, and other works. 



130 ELEMENTS OF THE 

truth, and thus fail of the suggestiveness and richness 
of Saxon words. The author who uses them habitually, 
without any deeper reference, erelong becomes enfeebled, 
his emotional nature dried up in its fountain-heads. 

But more than the loss of intellectual power, there is 
a loss on the moral side also. Many words are store- 
houses of moral ideas, if we have but the key to unlock 
them, — and are capable of elevating our habits of 
thought and observation to higher levels. The word 
constitution, for instance, is not a parchment, or a 
paper ordinance simply ; in its original sense, it carries 
our thoughts back to that which is abiding and necessary 
to the very conception of a state. The English word 
wrong, derived from the verb ivring, reveals its nature 
as something ivrung from a man contrary to his interests 
and rights ; and when pronounced with a full sense of its 
import, and a full hearty articulation of its consonants, 
attains its full force. It is worthy of note that the 
French tort from the Latin torqueo, has a similar sense, 
and a similar moral lesson. So again the word false, 
from the Latin fallo, reveals the deception that has been 
practised on the honest mind, — the betrayal and abuse 
of man's moral nature. 

Words are of no value, save as expressive of thought. 
Other things being equal, the man who uses the fewest 
words for his ideas will be sure of a hearing in the end. 
A score of authors may write on the same theme, but he 
only will obtain an abiding place in literature who has 
most fully and perfectly expressed his thoughts. The 
importance, therefore, of the study of words on the part 
of the author, or indeed, of any man who hopes to influ- 
ence by his language the conduct or character of his fel- 
low-men, or to secure himself an honorable place in their 
remembrance, can hardly be over-estimated. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 131 



CHAPTER XIL 

THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY CONCLUDED. — ITALIAN LIT- 
ERATURE. — THE DRAMA. — SPENSER. — THE SEVEN- 
TEENTH CENTURY. 

Italian Literature in the Age of Edward III., of Henry VIII. — 
Nature of its Influence — Blank Verse — Pastoral Poetry — 
Minor Poets of the Elizabethan Era — Dramatic Literature 
— Aid to the Saxon portion of the Language — Dramatic 
Writers — Scholars — Vocabulary ^f Shakspeare as Compared 
with Milton — The Vocabulary of Original Authors — Shak- 
speare in this respect — Shakspeare's Words the fit words — 
Early Dramatists — Spenser — Peculiarity of his Poetry, Lan- 
guage — Minor Poets of the Age : Warner, Joseph Hall, 
Chapman, Daniel, Donne, Quarles, Herbert — Standard Ver- 
sion of the Scriptures — Its Dialect — Influence — Enghsh 
Liturgy — Writers of the English Church — Style — Wants 
of the Language — Milton's Influence on the Language — 
Lord Bacon — Milton's Minor Poems and Prose. 

Influence of Italian Literature. 

The influence of Italian literature, which had fur- 
nished subject-matter for some of the elder poets, as 
Chaucer and Gower, was again felt upon some of the 
more select minds in the reign of Henry VIII., as Wyatt 
and Surrey. Its influence, however, was confined rather 
to supplying models of composition, and improving the 
literary taste of our authors, than to the introduction of 
new idioms or new words into our vocabulary, and such 



132 ELEMENTS OF THE 

continued to be its influence for more than two centuries. 
In imitation of the Italian poets, Surrey first discarded 
rhyme, and employed blank verse, in the translation of 
two books of the ^neid. The attempt was not very 
successful, but led the way to later successes on the part 
of Milton and others. Surrey was more successful in his 
rhymed poems, and but for his untimely death, — the vic- 
tim of tyranny, at the age of twenty-seven, — would have 
acquired a great name in English literature. Both 
Surrey and Wyatt did much to refine and polish the 
language, and by their choice of the popular colloquial 
speech of their time, disseminated their influence over 
a wide circle of readers. 

It was from Italian literature that our poets borrowed 
the forms of pastoral poetry, so popular in the time of 
EHzabeth, and for some time later ; illustrated by such 
w'riters as Sir Philip Sidney, Spenser, Browne, the 
Fletchers, and others. The ideal world which the 
pastoral poet created for himself gave a free range to 
his invention, and was a means of developing new 
powers in the language. It was a happy artifice by 
which the poet set himself free from the unpoetic real- 
ities around him, and with just enough of actual truth to 
retain him within the bounds of poetic probability, had 
the freest opportunity to display his fancy and his imag- 
ination. If this was not a field for the highest order of 
excellence, it was a valuable discipline for other and 
nobler labors on the part of such men as Spenser and 
Milton. 

The minor poets of the Elizabethan period show the 
influence of Italian models quite as much in the sub- 
stance as in the form of their poems. There is a warmth 
of coloring, a freedom in the expression of sensual pas- 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 133 

sion, that belong rather to the warm blood of the South, 
than to the soberer English, and to the purities of home 
and the domestic affections. In this direction the lan- 
guage may have gained in copiousness and facility, but 
at the expense of moral sentiment, and so lost in true 
power. There were, however, at work in other direc- 
tions influences that more than made up for any defi- 
ciency on this side ; influences that have had great weight 
on the course of English poetry ; and as the result, we 
have the high conceptions of the moral duties and influ- 
ence of the poet that have been set forth by Milton and 
Wordsworth. 

Dramatic Literature, 

The most important means of discipline which the lan- 
guage enjoyed in the sixteenth century was, doubtless, 
through the drama. If the learning and theology and 
political discussions of the time were of eminent service 
in developing the Latin elements of the language and 
adding to its copiousness, like noble service was rendered 
on the other hand to the Saxon portion by the drama. 
This was eminently for the people, and in the language 
of the people. Those who wrote were often learned 
men, — the earlier writers nearly all such ; and they 
were thus prepared to select with taste and judgment 
the fittest words from the popular dialect for the expres- 
sion of their thoughts. The progress of the drama, 
— from the first rude exhibitions of scriptural scenes, 
the so-called Mysteries, and the Moral Plays which were 
devised for the instruction of the people with a mixture 
of comic and farcical elements in order to retain their 
attention and amuse, — step by step, as the true office 



13'4 ELEMENTS OF THE 

of the drama became more and more revealed and the 
means provided to realize it, till it was taken up by 
Shakspeare and his contemporary dramatists, was em- 
inently favorable to the growth of choice and forcible 
language. The great variety of the characters and 
scenes gave it a wide range, till the vocabulary of 
Shakspeare became more than double that of any other 
writer in the English language. Craik estimates it at 
21,000 words, without counting the inflectional forms as 
distinct words, while that of Milton was but 7000. 

Every original author naturally forms a vocabulary 
in many respects his own, — for the utterance of his 
own thought and feeling on all subjects, however vari- 
ous. " But Shakspeare has invented twenty styles. 
He has a style for every one of his great characters, by 
which that character is distinguished from every other, as 
much as Pope is distinguished in his style from Dryden, 
or Milton from Spenser. And yet all the while it is he 
himself with his own peculiar accent that we hear in 
every one of them. The style or manner of expression — 
that is to say, the manner of thinking, of which the ex- 
pression is always the product — is at once both that 
which belongs to the particular character and that which 
is equally natural to the poet, the conceiver and creator 
of the character." ^ 

Yet the great number of words which he employs are 
never used carelessly : they are always the fit words, and 
can rarely be changed for others as expressive in their 
place. Very many of them are used but once or twice, 
and then because needed for the character and the situa- 
tion. The great mass of his ordinary diction is emphat- 
ically Saxon, and used, too, with economy. If we were 
1 Craik, i. 564. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 135 

to strike out all the words used not more than twenty 
times, there would be a very great reduction of his vo- 
cabulary, perhaps to the amount of two thirds of the 
whole. His power lay not simply in the extent of his vo- 
cabulary, needful as this was to his purpose, but in the 
skilful combination and power of the words he employed. 
Shakspeare was preceded by dramatists and other 
writers who had been steadily developing the resources 
of the language in all directions. His age was one of 
the greatest intellectual activity, — of fresh, original 
activity, on the most important subjects of human 
thought or endeavor. The public mind was stirred to its 
lowest depths by profound moral and political truth. 
And it was the moral life of man in its complete cir- 
cle, — in its completed round of award, as the result of 
necessary moral laws under the guidance of Divine 
Providence, that Shakspeare aimed to set forth. It was 
an ideal conception, the consummation of the drama ; 
one adequate to call forth his utmost energies, and de- 
manding for its full reahzation the largest experience, or 
what is the same to the true genius, the truest concep- 
tion of all possible human relations, and a language com- 
petent to express them, — and all this Shakspeare had. 
And it is not too much to say, that English speech as 
well as literature owes more to him than to any other 
man. Other dramatists of his time, as Marlowe, Beau- 
mont and Fletcher, Ben Jonson, all have their excellen- 
ces, — passages of great power, but not the even uni- 
form excellence, and by no means the command of lan- 
guage possessed by Shakspeare. Not unwisely has the 
student been referred to Shakspeare next to the author- 
ized version of the Scriptures for his best studies in the 
use of his native tongue. 



136 ELEMENTS OF THE 

Shakspeare's influence on his native tongue was univer- 
sal like his character, as valuable to its powers in prose 
as in verse. His prose was as good as the English litera- 
ture had yet known. Spenser's influence, on the other hand, 
was limited rather to poetry. He developed the language 
of sensuous imagery to its fullest compass. His style is 
rich, gorgeous, all aglow with poetic splendors. He seems 
to fairly revel in the profusion of beautiful imagery that 
crowds upon his fancy and imagination. The accumu- 
lations of the past from Chaucer down, with all the 
manifold creations of his own genius, are alike at his 
command. He sometimes indulges in archaic expres- 
sions, but they are the material he has borrowed from 
older poets; he is not archaic in his thought or spirit, 
but fully up to the time in which he lived. " In the mas- 
tery of the true English of his time," says Marsh,^ " in 
acute sensibility of ear and exquisite skill in the musical 
arrangement of words, he has no superior in the whole 
compass of English literature." The same writer has 
called attention to his rare felicity in verbal combinations, 
his use of adjectives to heighten and intensify the appro- 
priate meaning of his nouns, and often with reference to 
their radical sense, thus evincing a study of words rare 
at that period. 

The minor poets of the time were so far eclipsed by 
Spenser and Shakspeare as to fail of their just deserts. 
Their service to the language was much in the same 
general direction as that of the great masters. They 
wrote because they had something to say, and often said 
it well. Craik says of one of them, — Warner, who died 
in 1609, — that for " fluency, combined with precision, and 
economy of diction,." he is probably unrivalled among the 
1 Second Series, p. 548. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 137 

writers of English verse. The satires of Joseph Hall 
are still read with interest for their animated style and 
sentiment. Chapman's translation of Homer is the best 
extant, — in tone and spirit more like an original work 
than a translation. Daniel, so much admired by Cole- 
ridge, and yet more, Donne, illustrated the power of our 
speech to treat philosophical and metaphysical subjects 
in verse. The successors of Donne, — Quarles and Her- 
bert, — taxed it for whatever is quaint and sententious ; 
and, by their popularity, especially the latter, gave cur- 
rency to what for want of a better term may be called 
poetical conceits rather than good verse. 

In order to present together what stands in logical con- 
nection, some portion of what belongs to the next century 
will be noticed here. 

Our standard version of the Scriptures, though due in 
great measure to earlier versions and based on that of Wyc- 
liflfe, yet owes much to the care of the scholars appointed 
by King James. This subject has been discussed so fully 
and admirably by Marsh in his first series of lectures, 
that only a recognition of its place as affecting the char- 
acter of the language will here be made. It presents 
not the dialect of any one portion of the English people, 
but the carefully studied words of all English dialects, 
chosen during a long series of years, by a succession 
of earnest, thoughtful scholars, and at last adopted as 
the best in the judgment of a large number of able and 
accomplished divines. Its general use since, wherever 
Enghsh is spoken, has made it a power, conservative 
of the best and purest elements of our native speech. 
Next to this should be reckoned the liturgy of the 
English church used so widely in the British realms, as 
also for substance in this country. Although nominally 



138 ELEMENTS OF THE 

adopted in the reign of Edward VI., it had become 
fully established by the opening of the seventeenth cen- 
tury. Its diction is strongly marked by its Anglo-Saxon 
character, and has had no little influence upon the style 
and methods of composition of the English clergy. Dur- 
ing the century under review, their style in sermons and 
theological writing was manifestly superior to that of the 
dissenters ; more free, and easy, and idiomatic. Some of 
the finest of the Puritan writers lost much of their power 
from their heavy, cumbrous speech. There are some 
notable exceptions. But none of them can be compared 
with Jeremy Taylor, or Barrow. And at the close of the 
preceding century. Hooker had given an example of 
philosophical precision in the use of language, and some 
passages of great rhetorical beauty. The nearest rivals 
of these great masters of prose which the century pro- 
duced on the other side were Milton and Bunyan ; the 
first sometimes indulging in Latinisms to excess, but also 
remarkable for his rhythmical flow, and full, well-rounded 
periods ; the other for his admirable simplicity and nat- 
uralness of style. 

Nothing was now lacking in order to the full compass 
of the language but its use in the composition of a great 
epic, and in the higher triumphs of oratory. The last 
was not to be exhibited till the next century by Lord 
Chatham, Burke, and their compeers in both hemi- 
spheres ; the first was in reserve for Milton. He illus- 
trated the capacity of the language to embrace the high- 
est themes of poetry, and established our heroic measure. 
Poetry like his belongs emphatically to what De Quin 
cey calls the literature of power ; — it affects the thought 
of men, elevates, ennobles, and inspires fitting language 
for its utterance. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 139 

In the same light is Lord Bacon's influence to be 
regarded. His works, so far as they were in English, 
had an influence rather upon the thought of his time 
than directly upon its expression. His essays are to 
be regarded, as Marsh observes, as a " fair picture of 
the language used at that time by men of the highest 
culture in the conversational discussion of questions of 
practical philosophy, or what the Germans call world- 
wisdom.'^ Yet in the impulse he gave to scientific in- 
quiry and to philosophic thought, he was not, by any 
means, without great influence upon the language. 

Milton's great poetical works fell upon an evil time. 
Like Bacon's, his works were rather for succeeding ages 
than for his own. His thought was of a character 
that found little appreciation among the returned cava- 
liers, or the crowds that waited on the exhibitions of the 
comic dramatists. "His minor poems which were most 
thoroughly finished specimens of verse, filled to the full 
with rich poetic thought and imagery, shared in the fate 
that political and moral prejudices excited. They, too, 
were to find fit audience in another more favorable 
period. His prose was for his own age, his poetry for 
later times. It was in the latter that he was most at 
home, best able to give his thoughts a fitting form. 



140 ELEMENTS OF THE 



CHAPTER XIII. 

CONCLUDING PERIOD. 

The French School — Period in England — Dryden — His Po- 
sition and Merits — Hobbes, his Style — The Merits of the 
French School — The Prose of the Essayists, as a Model — 
Bunyan — Izaak Walton — Changes in the Language since 
the opening of the Eighteenth Century — Defoe — Swift — 
BoHngbroke — Johnson — Value of Johnson's Labors — His 
Written Style — The English Historians — The Style of 
Macaulay — Causes of a more Idiomatic Style of Late Years 

— Influence of German Literature — The Language in Great 
Britain as Compared with its Use in the United States — Dif- 
ferences — Cause — Orthography ^ — Changes of Pronunciation 

— Influence of Political Discussions, of the Clergy — Position 
and Future Destiny of the Language. 

The French School, 

Important changes in the literary world are never 
sudden. It is convenient to mark them by periods, but 
the first beginnings usually lie back underneath former 
periods, and stretch over succeeding ones. The influ- 
ence of French literature upon the English mind was 
already marked in the time of Charles I. The inter- 
course brought about between the two kingdoms through 
Queen Henrietta led to a partial imitation of French 
models. The distinguishinsc characteristic of French 
poetry as of French art, as Craik justly remarks, " neat- 
ness in the dressing of the thought," found English imi- 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 141 

tators in "Waller, Carew, Lovelace, and Suckling, — all 
minor poets, such as would most naturally become 
imitators. They were the first to exemplify, as a set 
purpose of style, what may be done by correctness of 
expression and smoothness of flow. They all deserve 
better of the language than of its poetry, for their attempt 
to give it greater finish and polish. The spirit of the 
age was yet too serious to allow of the sacrifice of 
all thought to mere effect, to brilliancy and display; 
though this was manifestly the tendency of this kind of 
writing, — to be studious of point rather than of truth, to 
rely on artifice and skill rather than on nature and true 
poetic feeling. Most of these writers, as would be ex- 
pected, belonged to the Cavalier party, but one on the 
Puritan side deserves mention, George Wither, who was 
known as a writer for some sixty years. His great 
excellence is his genuine English, and his anticipation, 
so to speak, of the forms and expressions of modern com- 
position. " His unaffected diction even now, has scarce- 
ly a stain of age upon it." Some of his songs and hymns 
of the Church are greatly admired. The secret of this 
modern cast of his composition it is not difficult to ex- 
plain. He was eminently true to the English spirit, — 
to the moral ideas which characterize English literature 
as a whole, from which it occasionally diverges, for a 
time, to one side or the other, but sooner or later comes 
back. He had imbibed the religious spirit of his time, 
and improved the means of culture offered him, so as 
to give a fitting form to the poetic religious thought 
of the day, and though not a genius of the highest 
order, was eminently happy in his age and opportu- 
nities. 

What is called the French school of poetry is hardly 
9 



142 ELEMENTS OF THE 

to be attributed solely to French influence, though un- 
doubtedly promoted by it, but rather to the same cause 
in both languages, the study of Eoman classic poetry, or 
perhaps to the study of the classics generally. It was 
rather the attempt to imitate so far as the unlike lan- 
guages would allow, classic models, to emulate the same 
finish and polish of diction. In the French language, 
from its derivation, the attempt was much more success- 
ful than in English. It was really foreign to the genius 
of the English, both in respect of form and of thought. 
It was opposed to the true Christian spirit and the deeper 
thought on all subjects which it inspires. It suited bet- 
ter the people whose language and religion were more in 
the spirit of the classical period. In England this school 
flourished during the decline of the religious sentiment 
for a century or more, and then gave way to the revival 
of a purer, more English, as more Christian, feeling and 
thought. 

Of this French school Dryden is sometimes called 
the founder, but as we have seen, it originated in an 
earlier period. Though belonging to this school, rather 
than to that of Shakspeare and Milton, he was too great 
a poet, and too much of a man to be the disciple of 
a school. He exhibits a true native, hearty vigor of 
expression, a command of good English diction, that 
redeems him at once from all servility to models. He 
deserves a high place for his valuable services to the 
language, by his own methods of using it in both prose 
and verse, and for his valuable criticism. He may be 
said to mark the turning point between the old heavy, 
cumbrous diction, the prolix discussions due, as we have 
suggested, in part to the influence of the scholastic phi- 
losophy, which characterize so much of the prose liter- 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 143 

ature of the preceding century and stand now so much, 
in the way of the influence of some of the noblest pro- 
ductions of the English minds, and the modern simplicity 
and directness of expression. There had been some 
specimens of good English prose before him, but they 
were exceptional instances. Jeremy Taylor, with all 
his eloquence and mastery of the long sentence, is far 
enough from the vivacity, directness, and energy of mod- 
e'rn thought ; Milton's prose, rich and copious as it is, is 
yet too much loaded with Latinisms to be a model of good 
English. The best writer, the man who has been styled 
by Hallam, "our first uniformly careful and correct 
writer, was Hobbes." In the properly intellectual qual- 
ities of style he has no superior. Ornament was not in 
his vein. In his translation of Homer it is said that 
there are but two positively poetical lines in the entire 
work. Little of poetical coloring could then be expected 
in his prose. " This," as Craik observes, " is his least 
merit. No writer has succeeded in making language a 
more perfect exponent of thought that it is, as employed 
by Hobbes. His style is not poetical nor glowing nor 
eloquent, because his mind was not poetical, and the 
subjects about which he wrote would have rejected the 
exaggerations of imaginative or passionate expression, if 
he had been capable of supplying such. But in the 
prime qualities of precision and perspicuity, and also in 
economy and succinctness, in force and in terseness, it is 
the very perfection of an expository style." ^ In these 
qualities, so unlike those of former English writers, we 
recognize the peculiarities characteristic of modern French 
prose, suggested probably at the first by French models, 
but carried to their perfection by a mind that needed but 
1 Craik's History of English Literature^ vol. ii. p. 109. 



144 . ELEMENTS OF THE 

a suggestion in order to the successful prosecution of his 
work. 

What had been the exception before, found in de- 
tached passages of particular writers, and in individual 
writers, with Dryden became the rule, and with him may 
be said to have begun our modern prose. 

The influence of the French school — or rather classi- 
cal school of poetry — was on the whole of great value to 
the culture of the language, if we can detach the language 
from the thought embodied in it. The study of words for 
the sake of their poetical capabilities has ever been of 
value as a means of securing a choice diction. This was 
carried to an excess by Pope and his followers, and 
to the serious damage of true poetic feeling, yet its in- 
fluence upon the language is obvious in the prose style 
of Pope, Gray, and Cowper, as well as in the essayists 
of the eighteenth century, more particularly Addison and 
Steele. The style of these authors is often commended 
as a model for young authors, and if ease and simplicity 
of expression are all that is to be desired, the commen- 
dation is good ; but if the higher qualities of style, as 
force, energy, intensity, and vehemence, — qualities de- 
pending quite as much on the thought as on the expres- 
sion, though uniting both, — are to be acquired, then these 
authors should be read but sparingly. There are others 
far better suited to develop in the student a hearty, 
vigorous, masculine style. They are such as breathe 
more of the true English spirit, its practical sound sense, 
its vehement energy, as fired by Christian ideas, and 
Christian conceptions of life and duty. 

During the ^istence of this French school there were 
a few writers who adhered with true Saxon fidelity to 
the native idiom. One of the most remarkable of these 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 145 

was John Bunyan. His language was not impaired by 
the learning of the schools, by its Latinity, or its scholas- 
ticism, nor by the courtly dialect of the cavaliers, nor 
by the models of the French school. "The style of 
Bunyan," says Lord Macaulay, " is delightful to every 
reader, and invaluable as a study to every person who 
wishes to obtain a wide command over the English lan- 
guage. The vocabulary is the vocabulary of the common 
people. There is not an expression, if we except a few 
technical terms of theology, which would puzzle the rud- 
est peasant. We have observed several pages which do 
not contain a single word of more than two syllables. 
Yet no writer has said more exactly what he meant to 
say. For magnificence, for pathos, for vehement ex- 
hortation, for subtile disquisition, for every purpose of 
the poet, the orator, and the divine, this homely dialect, 
the dialect of plain working men, was perfectly suffi- 
cient. There is no book in our literature on which we 
would so readily stake the fame of the old unpolluted 
English language, no book which shows so well how rich 
that language is in its own proper wealth, and how little 
it has been improved by all that it has borrowed." ^ 

Next to Bunyan, should be ranked the good and 
honest angler, — Izaak Walton ; a man in whom the 
hearty love of truth had its full expression, to the 
utter neglect of all pretence and affectation of style or 
thought. 

The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. 

The changes made in the language since the opening 
of the eighteenth century have been such as have re- 

1 Essays^ vol. ii. p. 266. (Edition published by Sbeldon & Co., New 
York.) 



146 ELEMENTS OF THE 

suited from its use by good authors, rather than from the 
admixture or assimilation of new elements. It has shared 
in the general advance in science and culture of those 
who have used it in both hemispheres. As the expres- 
sion of character, it has varied as the national and moral 
character of the people has changed. 

In Great Britain the change has been less perhaps 
than in the United States and the British Colonies. A 
few authors only need be mentioned as having a special 
influence. Among these are Defoe, Swift, Boling- 
broke, and Johnson, and perhaps the great English his- 
torians. 

Defoe exhibited the power of the language in a series 
of works belonging to what may be termed the deline- 
ative imagination. Minuteness of detail, truth to nature, 
graphic description, giving to all an air of reality, and a 
purity of English idiom, were his special characteristics. 
In his chosen field he ranked with Hobbes in that of 
political and moral philosophy. Both were eminently 
masters of English. In Defoe's works there is nothing 
of his own individuality, — of his personal character. 
In this respect Swift is wholly unlike him. Anything 
that comes from his pen bears the stamp of the author, 
his intense feeling, passions, and prejudices. No man 
ever excelled him in the language of biting sarcasm, and 
few for the nervous energy, and the masculine force of his 
English. His keen glance pierced straight to the heart 
of things, and his language is fully adequate to his per- 
ception, — sometimes coarse, almost savage in its se- 
verity, and again flexible to the gentler emotions ; yet 
on the whole remarkable for its clear masculine force. 
There is nothing of the tameness and weak goodness to 
be found in some authors of his age ; he had no patience 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 147 

with littleness or meanness of any sort, but struck right 
and left, with a stern English practical sense, eminently- 
refreshing to one weary of the nice proprieties and the 
classical euphemisms of second and third rate authors. 

Another writer, by his moral and political affinities 
left the more free to express his own individuaUty, and 
thus to merit a notice in this connection, was Lord Bo- 
iingbroke. " His style," observes Craik,^ " was a happy 
niedium between that of the scholar and that of the man 
of society ; or rather it was a happy combination of the 
best qualities of both, heightening the ease, freedom, 
fluency, and liveliness of elegant conversation with many 
of the deeper and richer tones of the eloquence of 
formal orations and of books. The example he thus set 
has probably had a very considerable eflfect in moulding 
the style of popular writing among us since his time." 
The following passage reminds us of the style of Lord 
Macaulay. It is from a notice of the two brothers 
Charles and James, of the House of Stuart : — 

" The two brothers, Charles and James, became then 
infected with popery to such degrees as their different 
characters admitted of. Charles had parts ; and his good 
understanding served as an antidote to repel the poison. 
James, the simplest man of his time, drank off the whole 
chalice. The poison met, in his composition, with all the 
fear, all the credulity, and all the obstinacy of temper 
proper to increase its virulence, and to strengthen its 
effect. The first had always a wrong bias upon him. 
.... The last drunk with superstitious and even en- 
thusiastic zeal, ran headlong upon his own ruin whilst he 
endeavored to precipitate ours. His parliament and his 
people did all they could do to save themselves by win- 

1 Vol. ii. p. 248. 



148 ELEMENTS OF THE 

ning him. But all was vain : he had no principle on 
which they could take hold. Even his good qualities 
worked against them, and his love of his country went 
halves with his bigotry. How he succeeded we have 
heard from our fathers. The revolution of one thousand 
six hundred and eighty-eight saved the nation and ruined 
the king." ^ 

But to no man of the century was the language so 
much indebted as to the great lexicographer, Dr. Samuel 
Johnson. His dictionary, the result of seven years' in- 
cessant labor, with the aid of five or six copyists, was 
published in 1755, and marks an era in the history of the 
language. Several attempts had been made,^ before this, 
with some degree of success. Of these the dictionary of 
Bailey, originally published in 1720, had gone through a 
large number of editions, and was in current use, yet the 
work of Johnson was at once hailed as the dictionary of 
English speech, and more than any other has continued to 
be the standard to the present time. No other work of 
the kind has done so much to fix the external form of the 
language, and to settle the meaning and use of words. Its 
etymology, however, is specially defective, considered in 
the light of present investigations. But while aiming to 
settle so far as possible the current orthography, Johnson 
was not insensible to the changes constantly taking place. 
" No dictionary of a living language ever can be perfect, 
since whilst it is hastening to publication some words are 
budding, and some are falling away." This remark is 
well confirmed by our most judicious lexicographer. Dr. 
Worcester, when he says, " It is undoubtedly true that 

1 Concluding part of a letter to Sir William Wyndham. 

2 See History of English Lexicography, Preface to Worcester's Dic- 
tionary. 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 149 

there never was so great an influx of new words into the 
English language during any century, from the time of 
its first formation to the time of the first publication of 
Johnson's Dictionary, as there has been since that event. 
Various other changes have taken place in the language. 
Some words then obsolete have been revived, some then 
in use have now become obsolete, and many have changed 
their orthography." ^ 

Johnson's English style in written discourse was 
marked by a return to the greater use of words of 
Latin derivation, giving that peculiar sonorousness and 
pomp of diction that for want of a better word has 
been called Johnsonese, — and in this respect he cannot 
be said to have aided the purity of our English idiom, 
farther than the use "of the language by any strong clear 
minded author tends to improve it. This peculiar style, 
however, arose from no real lack of a better and hear- 
tier idiom, as the record of his conversations abundantly 
proves. 

No one of the three great English historians of the last 
century, nor even Lord Macaulay of the present, is to 
be commended as in all respects a proper model of Eng- 
lish style, though all have had, and will continue to have 
by their works, a great influence. No one of the first 
three was of English education. The style of Hume, 
while remarkable for its clearness and simplicity, and 
general fitness for his theme, is not without its Scotti- 
cisms ; Gibbon's, though admirable in its sustained ma- 
jesty and brilliancy, and still more than Hume's even, 
adapted to the grandeur of his theme, — his full, well- 
rounded periods so like the steady trafnp of the Roman 
legions, or the triumphal processions that followed the 
1 Preface to Worcester's Dictionary, p. xxv. 



150 ELEMENTS OF THE 

conquerors to the capitol, — is far enough from the idio- 
matic force of Swift, the impassioned vehemence of Mot- 
ley, or the pictorial beauty of Prescott ; and Robertson 
lacks both adaptation of style to subject and idiomatic 
worth, though widely read in his time and since, because 
of his subject-matter and the lack of better authors. The 
style of Lord Macaulay is wanting in the calm, serious 
tone that carries conviction of truth. It is too much 
that of the advocate ; too much set upon striking effects. 
It interests and captivates, but it has more of daz- 
zling brilliancy than the clear serene light of truth. It 
is not promotive of thought, nor suited to lodge great 
truths in the mind. It must not be denied that it has 
also great merits; — great clearness and precision, beauty 
and aptness of illustration, marked by a rare command 
of all the resources of the language. But its popu- 
larity, great as it is, lacks the soberer qualities of style, 
which are necessary to secure it its present high re- 
gard in after times, and to make it a safe model for 
students. 

The revival of a better spirit of poetry, the study of 
old English, and the better moral and religious sentiment 
that has prevailed the last three fourths of a century, 
have done much to secure better thought and better lan- 
guage, — have led to a more idiomatic Saxon style, not 
only among the prose writers, but still more among the 
poets, as Byron, Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Mrs. Brown- 
ing. On the other hand the influence of German litera- 
ture has not been favorable to the purity of our idiom 
Mr. Carlyle, who did most to introduce it to the public, 
developed a peculiar style for himself, which by reason 
of the oftentimes valuable thought and earnestness of 
the author, obtains some admirers, and so far exerts 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 151 

an unwholesome influence. So occasionally individual 
instances may be expected of departures from the com- 
mon standard, but the sober good sense of the English 
mind cannot long be turned away by false lights. 

In Great Britain there still exists great diversity in 
the use of the language among the different classes of 
society. The long-settled habits and usages of English 
life, do not seem to be easily flexible to the changes going 
on, or to common influences, as in this country. The 
common mind is moved more slowly, — diversities of 
idiom require time to be reduced to a common stand- 
ard ; new words, developed in trade or the arts, or by. 
foreign intercourse, are more restricted in their use, be- 
come popularized less frequently, and only after the lapse 
of a longer time than in this country. The better 
classes speak better and the common people worse than 
in the United States, where the democratic spirit unfortu- 
nately tends to lower the standard from the best use, and 
the greater intercourse with all parts of the country, by 
migration and the common issues of the press, tends to 
preserve a common idiom. For these reasons, too, there 
is little doubt that the common people of this country 
use a much larger vocabulary than the same class in 
Great Britain. If we add to these the new words that 
have been derived from our foreign population, from the 
peculiarities of our national government and social insti- 
tutions, and from the different circumstances and em- 
ployments of our people generally, we shall find not 
only a larger vocabulary but in many respects a differ- 
ent one from that in common use in Great Britain. 
The various political, religious, and social relations find 
their proper expression in classes of words peculiar to 
the different countries. There are also retained in this 



152 ELEMENTS OF THE 

country, and falsely called Americanisms, many words of 
good old English stock, which have been handed down 
from the original colonists, but have fallen out of use in 
the mother country. There are again some words which 
have first obtained a special use in their respective lo- 
calities, and have afterwards become naturalized. 

For a valuable analysis of words used in different 
senses in the two countries the reader is referred to 
a paper on Provincialisms, Archaisms, and American- 
isms, in " Worcester's Dictionary," and for a more full 
discussion of the subject, and for additional suggestions, 
to Marsh, — last lecture of his first series. 

The orthography of the language can hardly yet be 
considered as settled in regard to all words, though com- 
paratively little change has been made on the forms laid 
down by Johnson. Attempts have been made at dif- 
ferent times, as by Dr. Webster, in the earlier editions 
of his Dictionary, but with little success. The language 
is not very submissive to the theories of grammarians 
or lexicographers ; its life and spontaneity cannot long 
be held in abeyance or subjected to any predetermined 
forms, however plausible or well reasoned. The later 
efforts of phonographers meet no better success with the 
common mind, to say nothing of the opposition of all in- 
terested in philological studies. 

Of late years the changes in pronunciation have been 
greater than in orthography. And here too the usage 
in this country is more at variance with that of Great 
Britain. This is due, doubtless, mainly to climate. The 
more northern climates naturally tend to a more hurried 
and less open pronunciation, and to throwing the accent 
upon the first part of the word, and to slurring over the 
latter part. In this country, and the more as one goes 



ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 153 

west or south, there is noticed the tendency to throw the 
accent more toward the penult, and, as Marsh has no- 
ticed, many proper names of two syllables, having the 
accent on the first syllable in New England, take it on 
the last at the West and South. 

In one direction at least American authors have en- 
riched the language, — in that of political discussion. 
The state papers of the Revolution and the works of 
oui" great statesmen, Hamilton, Madison, Jefferson, the 
Adamses, and Webster, have taken up and carried for- 
ward to greater completeness the work begun by Milton 
and Sidney, and others, noted in the political discussions 
of the seventeenth century on British soil. 

The language in both countries owes much to the ex- 
ample and influence of its educated clergymen, not more 
perhaps from their public addresses and the services of 
the Sabbath, than from their private personal intercourse 
among the people. They help to preserve its dignity 
and purity ; they are the conservators of the better 
elements of the popular diction, while the racier and the 
more idiomatic are constantly renewed from the dialect 
of common life. 

The written language of the two nationalities, as the 
inheritor of all the literature of the past, and the embodi- 
ment of the utmost variety of thought on all human in- 
terests, must remain substantially the same. The great 
truths which underlie all human progress, the conditions 
of the world's evangelization, and the triumph of a 
Christian civilization, have been committed to it. Its ex- 
tension and the conservation of its powers are thus inti- 
mately connected with the progress of culture and of 
humanity. 



ILLUSTEATIVE SPECIMENS. 



I. ORIGINAL ENGLISH; ENGLISH PURE OR SBIPLE, 
(SAXON OR ANGLO-SAXON.) 

1. From the Voyage of Ohther in Alfred's Translation 
of Oi'osius, Book i. : — before a. d. 900. 

And thser is mid Estum dheaw, thonne thger bidh man 
dead, thset he lidh inue unforbaerned mid his magum and 
freondum monadh, ge hwilum twegen, and tha kyningas 
and tha odhre heahdhungene men swa micle lencg swa 
hi maran speda habbadh ; hwilum healf gear thaet hi 
beodh unforbasrned, and licgadh bufan eorthan on hyra 
husura. And, ealle tha hwile the thast he bidh inne, 
thaer sceal beon gedrync and plega, odh thone daeg the 
hi hine forbaernadh. 

[And there is with Esthonians a custom, when there is one 

dead, that he lieth within unburnt with his kinsmen and friends 

a month, yea sometimes (whiles, Scot.) twain, and the kings and 

the other high-spoken-of men so much (mickle, Scot.) longer as 

they more wealth {lit. speed) have ; sometimes [it is] half a 

year that they be unburnt, and lie above earth in their houses. 

And, all the while that the corpse is within, there shall be (it is 

the custom that there be) drinking and play until the day that 

they it burn.] 

{Craik.) 



ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 155 

2. From the latter portion of the Chronicle : —^ about 1100. 

A. D. 1087. — . . . Dhissum thus gedone, se cyng 
"Willelm cearde ongean to Normandige. . . He swealt 
on Normandige on thone nextan daeg sefter nativitas See 
Marie ; and man begyrgede hine on Cathum set See 
[Sci ?] Stepbanes mynstre. . . Gif hwa gewilnJged to 
gewitane bu gedon man he was, odhdhe hwilcne wurdh- 
scipe he haefde, odhdhe hu fela lande he waere hlaford, 
thonne wille we be him awritan swa swa we hine ageaton ; 
we him onlocodan, and odhre hwile on his hirede wune- 
don. . . He sgette mycel deorfridh, and he laegde laga 
thaer widh ; thaet swa hwa swa sloge heort odhdhe hinde 
tbget hine man sceold blendian. He forbead tha heortas,-^ 
swylce eac tha baras. Swa swidhe he lufode tha heodeor 
swylce he wsere heora fseder. Eac he ssette be tham 
haran thset hi mosten freo faran. His rice men hit msen- 
don, and tha earme men hit beceorodan ; ac he waes swa 
stidh thset he ne rohte heora eallra nidh. 

[This thus done, the King "William turned again to Normandy. 
. . . He died in Normandy on the next day after (the) nativity 
of St. Mary {Nativitas Sanctce. Marice) ; and man (German man, 
French on, anciently homme) buried him in Caen, at St. Stephen's 
minster. . . If any may wish to know how to do man (what 
kind of man) he was, or what worship he had, or of how many- 
lands he was lord, then will we by (in regard to) him write so 
as we him knew : we him beheld, and other while in his house- 
hold wonned (dwelt). . . He set much deer free-ground (he 
made many deer-parks), and he laid [down] laws therewith ; 

1 We ought, apparently, to read, Thoei hwa swa shge heort, and Sioa 
he forlead tha heoi-tas. The passage from He scette mycel deorfridh is 
probably in rhyme, although Dr. Ingram's proposed substitution of 
hlinde for blendian is inadmissible without a verb in the infinitive after 
sceold. 



156 ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 

that "vrhoso slew hare or hind that him man should bUnd. As he 
forbade [to slay] the harts, so also the boars. So much he 
loved the high-deer as he were their father. Also he set by 
(appointed regarding) the hares that they must free fare. His 
rich men it moaned, and the poor men it lamented ; but he was 
so stern, that he recked not the hatred of them all.] 

The element printed dk in these two extracts is to he sounded 
as the th in this. It is represented in the MSS., and in the com- 
mon so-called Saxon printing, by one character ; as the th heard 
in thin is by another. But there is by no means a perfect corre- 
spondence, as to this matter, between the old language and our 
present English; nor, indeed, are the two characters distin- 
guished with any uniformity of usage in the MSS. 

{Craih) 



3. From the Anglo-Saxon Version of the Holy Gospels, 
edited by B, Thorpe, London, 1842. Time about 
1100. John iv. 1-10. 

Tha se Haelend wyste thaet tha Pharisei gehyrdon 
thaet he haefde ma leorning-cnyhta thonne Johannes, 
(theah se Haelend ne fullode, ac hys leorning-cnyhtas,) 
tha forlet he ludea-land, and for eft on Galilea. Hym 
gebyrede thaet he sceolde faran thurh Samaria-land. 
Witodlice he com on Samarian cestre, the ys genemmed 
Sychar, neah tham tune the Jacob sealde losepe his 
suna. Thaer waes Jacobes wyll. Se Haelend saet aet 
tham wylle, tha he waes werig gegan : and hit waes mid- 
dteg. Tha com thaer an wif of Samaria, wolde waeter 
feccan : Tha cwaedh se Haeland to byre ; syle me drincan. 
(Hys leorning-cnyhtas ferdon tha to thsere ceastre, woldoa 
him mete bicgan.) Tha cwaedh thaet Samaritanisce wif 
to hym ; Humeta bitst thu aet me drincan, thonne thu 



ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 157 

eart ludeisc, and ic eom Samaritanisce wif ? ne brucadh 
ludeas and Samaritanisce metes aetgaedere. Tha and- 
swarode se Haelend, and cwaedh to byre : Gif tbu wistest 
Godes gyfe, and bwaet se is tbe cwydb to tbe, syle me 
di-incan witodlice ; tbu baede bine thaet be sealde tbe lifes 
wsBter. 

In the above, the aspirate forms for th and dh are printed ac- 
cording to the rule laid down by Ettmiiller, following the exam- 
ple of Grimm and Rask : — 

" Gothicae hnguae norma ac regula ab Anglosaxonibus eo 
perturbata est, ut pro simplici Gothorum aspirata J) duobus ute- 
rentur signis, soil. J) et $ (= th et dh), quorum alterum mediis in 
vocibus inque earum fine poneretur. Maximam partem etiam 
libri script! banc regulam tuentur, tamen non semper sibi con- 
stant, nam interdum voces a $ incipiunt, inque medio et fine J> 
exhibent." — Prcefatio, Lex. Anglosax. 



10 



158 ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 



IL BROKEN ENGLISH, OR SEMI-ENGLISH (SEMI-SAXON): 
A. D. 1150-1250. 

4. The Commencement of LayamorCs Brut, according to 
the Oldest of the two Versions, MS. Cott. Calig. 
A, ix. : — about 1200.^ 

An preost wes on leoden ; 
Layamon wes ihoten ; 
He wes Leovenadhes sone : 
Lidhe him beo Drihte. 
He wonede at Ernleye, 
At aedhelen are chirechen, 
Uppen Sevarne stalhe : 
Sel thar him thuhte ; 
On fest Radestone ; 
Ther he bock radde. 
Hit com him on mode, 
And on his mern thonke, 
Thet he wolde of Engle 
Tha aedhelaen tellen ; 
Wat heo ihoten weoren, 
And wonene heo comen, 
Tha Englene londe 
JErest ahten 
JEfter than flode, 

1 In this and other extracts (made by Craik) the ancient fashion of 
writing and printing i for j, u for v, and v for u, in particular circum- 
stances, has not been adhered to, though preserved by some of the 
modern editors. It is merely a different mode of forming the letters 
in question, which cannot be supposed to have affected their sound. 



ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 159 

The from Drihtene com, 

The al her a-quelde 

Quic that he funde, 

Buten Noe and Sem, 

Japhet and Cham, 

And heore four wives. 

The mid heom weren on archen. 

[A priest was on earth (or, perhaps, in the land, or among the 
people) ; Layamon was [he] (called) ; he was Leovenath's son ; 
gracious to him be [the] Lord. He wonned (dwelt) at Ernley, 
at a noble church, upon Severn's bank, — good there to him [it] 
seemed — near Radestone ; there he book read. It came to him 
in mind, and in his chief (1) thought, that he would of EngHsh- 
men the noble-deeds tell ; what they called were, and whence 
they came, that English land first owned, after the flood, that 
from [the] Lord came, that all here quelled (destroyed), quick 
(alive) that it found, but Noah and Shem, Japhet and Ham, and 
their four wives, that with them were in [the] ark.] 

In the later version, MS. Cotfc. Otho, C. xiii., the passage 
stands thus : — 

A prest was in londe ; 

Laweman was hote ; 

He was Leucais sone 

Lef him beo drifte. 

He wonede at Ernleie, 

Wid than gode cnithte ; 

Uppen Sevarne ; 

]VIerie ther him thohte ; 

Faste bi Radistone : 

Ther heo bokes radde. 

Hit com him on mode. 

And on his thonke, 

That he wolde of Engelond 

The riftnesse telle ; 

Wat the men hi-hote weren, 



160 ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 

And wancne hi comen, 
The Englene lond 
JErest afden 
After than flode, 
That fram God com ; 
That al ere acwelde 
Cwic that hit funde, 
Bot Noe and Sem, 
Japhet and Cam, 
And hire four wifes, 
That mid ham there weren. 

In this version Sir F. Madden conjectures that hote, in line 2, 

should be ihote; that heo, in line 10, should be he; and that 

wancne, in line 16, should be wanene. 

(Craik.) 



5. LayamorCs Description (with the two hemistichs, or 
short lines, printed as a single verse) of the arming 
of Prince Arthur before the Battle of Baddon Hill, 
or Bath (a. d. 520 ?), from the Brut, 21,149- 
21,568; Madden, ii. 464-5: — also given, with 
one or two variations, hy Guest, Eng. Rh. ii. 118, 
' 119 :—/rom MS. Cott. Galig, A. \^i-^ about 1200. 

He heng an his sweore aenne sceld deore ; 

His nome was on Bruttisc Pridwen ihaten : 

Ther was innen igraven mid rede golde staven 

An on-licnes deore of Drihtenes moder. 

His spere he nom an honde, tha Ron wes ihaten. 

Tha he hafden al his iweden tha leop he on his steden. 

Tha he mihte behalden tha bihalves stoden 

Thene vaeireste eniht the verde scolde leden ; 

Ne isae nsevere na man selere eniht nenne 

Thenne him wes Ardhur, adhelest cunnes. 



ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 161 

That is, literally : — 

He hung on his neck a dear [precious] shield ; 

Its name was in British called Pridwen : 

There was within fon it] engraven with red gold tracings 

A dear likeness of the Lord's mother. 

His spear he took in hand, that was called Eon. 

When he had all his weeds [accoutrements], then leapt he on his 

steed. 
Then they might behold that beside stood 
The fairest knight that host should lead ; 
ISTor saw never no man better knight none 
Than he was, Arthur, noblest of kin. 

In the later version, MS. Cott. Otho, C. xiii. (1250?), this 
passage stands: — 

He heng on his swere one sceald deore ; 

His name was in Bruttisse Pridewyn ihote ; 

That (thar ?) was hine igraved on anlichnesse of golde, 

That was mid isothe Drihtene moder. 

His spere he nam an honde, that Ron was ihote. 

Tho he hadde al his wede, tho leop he on his stede. . 

Tho hii mihte bi-holde that thar bi-halves were 

Thane fairest cniht that ferde sal leade. 

(The two concluding lines do not occur in the later MS.) 

The y which occurs in Layamon, Ernleye, and other words, is 
represented in the original by a character the form of which, as 
well as its position, would seem to indicate that it represented a 
sound combining that ofg andy, or intermediate between the two. 
In the modern language it has for the most part become y before 
a vowel, and g hard, or gh, elsewhere. It never can have had 
any resemblance to the sound of z, by which it has sometimes 
been ignorantly rendered in modern reprints of old English and 
Scottish texts. In the later version of Layamon this character 
appears much less frequently than in the earlier version, and that 
representing dh does not occur at all. 

{Craik.) 



162 ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 



6. The following 'passage of four lines from hoth texts 
will show the change in the form of the possessive 
as well as the unsettled usage of the time. — Mad- 
den^s Layamon^ 19565-69. VoL ii, p, 397. 

Earlier Text, 

Al thene daei-libte, 
Udheres cnihtes, 
Slogen and nomen 
Al that heo neh comen. 

Later Text. 

And al than day-liht 
Uter his cnihtes, 
Slogen and nomen, 
That hii neh comen. 

[ [And] all the daylight Uther's (Uther his) knights slew and 
captured all that they came nigh.] 



ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 163 



IIL COMPOUND ENGLISH; A. d. 1250-^ (EARLY ENGLISH; 

1250-1350.) 

7. Dedication hy the Author of the Ormulum to his 
Brother: — about 1250. 

Nu, brotherr Wallterr, brother min affterr the flaeshess 

kinde ; 
And brotherr min i Crisstenndom thurrh fuUuhht and 

thurrh trowwthe ; 
And brotherr min i Godess hus, yet o the thride wise, 
Thurrh thatt witt hafenn takenn ba an reghellboc to 

follghenn, 
Unnderr kanunnkess had and lif, swa summ Sannt 

Awwstin sette ; 
Ice hafe don swa summ thu badd, and fortheddte thin 

wille ; 
Ice hafe wennd inntill Ennglissh goddspelless halghe 

lare, 
Affterr thatt little witt tatt me min Drihhten hafethth 

lenedd. 

[Now, brother "Walter, brother mine after the flesh's kind ; 
And brother mine in Christendom, through baptism and through 

truth (faith) ; 
And brother mine in God's house, yet in the third wise, 
Through (for) that we have taken both one rule-book to follow. 
Under (the) canon's rank and life so as Saint Austin ruled; 
I have done so as thou badest, and furthered thy will (wish) ; 
I have turned into English [the] Gospel's holy lore, 

After that httle wit that me my Lord hath lent.] 

(Craik.) 



164 ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 



8. On the Typical Meaning of Unleavened Bread. In 
single lines according to the Oxford Edition of the 
Ormulum, hy Robert Meadows White, D. D, Ox- 
ford, 1852. — 1st vol. p. 53, 1590-1605. 

Forr therrflinng ^ braed iss clene braed, 

Forr that itt iss unnberrmedd,^ 

And itt bitacnethth clene lif, 

And alle clene thaewess,^ 

And clene thohht, and clene word, 

And alle clene dedess. 

And giff thin heorrte iss harrd and starrc. 

And stedefasst o Criste 

To tholenn * forr the lufe off himm 

All that tatt is to dreghenn,^ 

Tha lakesst® tu thin Drihhtin' swa 

Gastlike i thine thaewess, 

"Withth fasst ^ and findig ® laf and harrd 

"Withthinnenn and withthutenn, 

Swa thatt itt magg wel hellpenn the 

To winnen Godess are.^^ 



9. Proclamation of Henry 111., A. d., 1258. 

What is commonly given as our earliest specimen of 
English (as distinguished from what is called Semi- 
Saxon) is a proclamation issued in 1258, in the name 



1 Unleavened. 


2 Unfermented. 


8 Services. 


* To suflfer. 


5 To be endured. 


6 Servest. 


7 Lord. 


8 Close. 
10 Favor. 


9 Firm. 



ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 165 

of King Henry III., while under the control of the 
Council appointed at what is called "the mad parlia- 
ment" of Oxford, of which the following is the copy- 
addressed to the people of Huntingdonshire : — 

" Henr* thurg godes fultume King on Engleneloande 
Lhoauerd on Yrloand Duk* on Norm* on Aquitain' and 
Eorl on Aniow, send igretinge to alle hise halde, ilaerde 
and ilaewed, on Huntendon* schir' 

" Thaet witen ge wel alle thaet we willen and unnen 
thaet, thaet ure raedesmen alle other the moare dael of 
heom thaet beoth ichosen thurg us and thurg thaet 
loandes folk one ure kuneriche habbeth idon and schul- 
len don in the worthnesse of gode, and on ure treowthe 
for the freme of the loande thurg the besigte of than to 
foreniseide redesmen beo stedefaest and ilestinde in alle 
thinge abuten aende. 

" And we hoaten alle ure treowe in the treowthe thaet 
heo us ogen thaet heo stedefaesliche healden and swerien 
to healden and to werien the isetnesses thet beon imakede 
and beon to makien thurg than to foren iseide raedesmen 
other thurg the moare dael of heom alswo alse hit is bi- 
foren iseid. 

" And thaet aehc other helpe thaet for to done bi than 
ilche othe agenes alle men rigt for to done and to foan- 
gen, and non ne mine of loand ne of egte, wherthurg this 
besigte muge beon ilet other iwersed on onie wise. And 
gif oni other onie cumen her ongenes we willen and hoaten 
thaet alle ure treowe heom healden deadliche ifoan. 

" And for thaet we willen thaet this beo stedefaest and 
lestinde. We senden gew this writ open iseined with vre 
seel to halden amanges gew ine hord. Witnesse ussel- 
vien aet Lunden', thane egtetenthe day on the monthe 
of Octobr' in the two and fowertightei yeare of ure crun- 
inge." 



166 ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 

[Henry, through God's help, King in England, Lord in Ireland, 
Duke in Normandy, in Aquitain, and Earl in Anjou, sends greet- 
ing to all his subjects, learned and lay, in Huntingdonshire. 

This know ye well all that we will and grant that that our 
counsellors, all or the more part of them, that be chosen through 
us and through the land's folk in our kingdom, have done and 
shall do, in the honor of God and in our truth (allegiance), for 
the good of the land, through the business (act) of those to-fore- 
said counsellors, be steadfast and lasting in all things but (with- 
out) end. 

And we enjoin all our lieges, in the truth (allegiance) that they 
us owe, that they steadfastly hold, and swear to hold and to de- 
fend, the ordinances that be made and be to make through the 
to-foresaid counsellors, or through the more part of them, all so 
as it is before said. 

And that each other help that for to do, by them [to] each 
other against all men right for to do and to promote. And none, 
nor of my land nor elsewhere, through this business may be let 
(hindered) or damaged in any wise. And if any man or any 
woman come them against, we will and enjoin that all our lieges 
them hold deadly foes. 

And, for that we will that this be steadfast and lasting, we 
send you this writ open, signed with our «eal, to hold amongst 
you in hoard (store). Witness ourselves at London, this eigh- 
teenth day in the month of October, in the two and fortieth year 
of our crowning. 1 ] 

1 This proclamation was first printed by Somner, in his Dictionarium 
Saxonico-Laiino-Anglicum, fol. Oxon. 1659. In the Record Commis- 
sion edition of Mymer^s Foedera, vol. i. (1816), p. 378, it is entitled, 
" Carta Regis in idiomate Anglico, ad singulos comitatus Angliae et 
Hiberniag super reformatione status regni per proceres ejusdem regni; " 
and is stated to be there given as transcribed from the original among 
the Patent Rolls in the Tower of London ( " Pat. 43, Hen. III. m. 15, 
in Turr. Lond."). The present transcript, however, will be found, 
we believe, to be more correct than any hitherto published. 

" This proclamation," Dr. Lingard observes, " is in both languages 
[English and French], the first of that description which has been 
preserved since the reign of Henry I., though I do not understand how 
such proclamations could have become known to the people unless 
they were published in the English language." — Hist. Eng. III. 125. 



ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. ' 167 

But this official paper can scarcely be safely quoted as 
exhibiting the current language of the time. Like all 
such documents, it is made up in great part of established 
phrases of form, many of which had probably become 
obsolete in ordinary speech and writing. The English 
of the proclamation of 1258 is much less modem than 
that of the Ormulmn, and fully as near to the earlier 
form of the language, both in the words and in the gram- 
mar, as any part of Layamon's Chronicle, if not rather 
more so. — Craih's outlines, pp. 72-75. 



10. From the beginning of a song against the King of 
Almaigne. Reign of Henry III., near 1264. From 
Political Songs, edited by Wright, printed for the 
Camden Society: London, 1839. p. 69. 

1. Sitteth alle stille ant herkneth to me ; 
The Kyn of Alemaigne, bi mi leaute,-^ 
Thritti thousent pound askede he 
For te make the pees in the countre, 

'ant so he dude more. 
Bichard thah thou be ever trichard ^ 

trichen shalt thou never more. 

2. Richard of Alemaigne, whil that he wes kyng, 
He spende al is tresour opon swy vyng ; ^ 
Haveth he nout of "Walingford o ferlyng ; * 
Let him habbe, ase he brew, bale to dryng,^ 

maugre Wyndesore. 
Richard, thah thou be ever trichard 
trichen shalt thou never more. 
1 Loyalty. ^ Traitor. ^ Luxury. * Furlong. ^ Drink. 



168 .ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 

11. The Commencement of Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle 
as printed by Hearne : — about 1300. 

Engelond ys a wel god lond, ich wene of eche lond best, 
Yset in the ende of the world, as al in the West. 
The see goth hym al a boute, he stont as an yle. 
Here fon heo durre the lasse doute, but hit be thorw gyle 
Of fol of the selve lond, as me hath y seye wyle. 
From South to North he is long eighte hondred myle ; 
And foure hondred myle brod from Est to* West to 

wende, * 
Amydde tho lond as yt be, and noght as by the on ende. 
Plente me may in Engelond of alle gode y se, 
Bute folc yt for gulte other yeres the worse be. 
For Engelond ys ful ynow of fruyt and of tren, 
Of wodes and of parkes, that joye yt ys to sen ; 
Of foules and of bestes, of wylde and tame al so ; 
Of salt fysch and eche fresch, and fayre ry veres ther to ; 
Of welles swete and colde ynow, of lesen and of mede ; 
Of selver or and of gold, of tyn and of lede ; 
Of stel, of yrn, and of bras ; of god corn gret won 
Of whyte and of wolle god, betere ne may be non. 

[England is a very good land, I ween of every land [the] best ; 
set in the end of the world, as [being] wholly in the west. The 
sea goeth it all about ; it standeth as an isle. Their foes they 
need the less fear, except it be through guile of folk of the same 
land, as one hath seen sometimes. From South to North it is 
long eight hundred mile ; and four hundred mile broad from 
East to West to wend, amid the land as it be, and not as by the 
one end. Plenty one may in England of all good see, except 
(were it not for) folk that for guilt some years the worse be. 
For England is full enough of fruit and of trees ; of woods and 
of parks, that joy it is to see ; of fowls and of beasts, of wild and 
tame also ; of salt fish and eke fresh, and fair rivers thereto ; of 



ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 169 

wells sweet and cold enow, of pasture and of mead ; of silver ore 
and of gold, of tin and of lead ; of steel, of iron, and of brass ; 
of good corn great store ; of wheat and of good wool, better may 
be none.] (Craik.) 

12. Beginning of a song on the execution of Sir Simon 
Fraser. WrigMs edition as above, p. 212, — 1306. 

Lystneth, lordynges, a new song ichulle ^ bigynne, 
Of the tray tours of Scotlond that take beth wy th gynne ; ^ 
Mon that loveth falsnesse and nule never blynne,^ 
Sore may him drede the lyf that he is ynne, 
ich understonde : 

Selde wes he glad 

That never nes a-sad 

Of nythe ^ ant of onde.^ 



13. Medical Recipes from Reliquice Antiquce, From a 
MS, of the fourteenth century. Northern dialect. 

For hym that haves the squynansy : tak a fatte katte, 
and fla hit wele, and clene, and draw oute the guttes, 
and tak the grees of an urcheon, and the fatte of a bare, 
and resynes * * * and sauge, and gumme of wode- 
bynde, and virgyn wax ; al this mye ® smal, and farse "^ 
the catte within als thu farses a gos, ros* hit hale, and 
geder the grees and enoynt hym tharwith. — p. 51. 

For to make a woman's neke white and softe : tak 
fresch swynes grees molten, and hennes grees and the 
white of egges half rosted, and do thereto a lytel popyl 
mele, enoynt hir therwith ofte. — p. 53. 

1 1 shall. 2 A.re taken in a trap. 3 yif\\\ never leave it 

< Envy. 5 Spite. (The two last are according to Coleridge's 

Glossarial Index, rather than Wright's translation.) 
6 Pound. 7 Stuff — Latin Fardo. 



170 ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 

14. The beginning and end of an Elegy on the death of 
Edward I. Probably written soon after his death, 
1307. Wright's Political songs, pp. 246, 250. 

Alle that beoth of huerte trewe, 

A stounde ^ herkneth to my song, 

Of duel ^ that deth hath diht us newe, 

That maketh me syke ant sorewe among ; ^ 

Of a knyght that vves so strong, 

Of wham God hath don ys wille : 

Me thuncketh that deth hath don us wrong, 

That he so sone shall ligge still. 

• • • • • 

Thah mi tonge were mad of stel, 
Ant min herte y-yote ^ of bras. 
The godnesse myht y never telle 
That with Kyng Edward was ; 
Kyng, as thou art cleped conquerour 
In uch bataille thou hadest pris ; 
God bringe thi soule to the honour 
That ever wes ant ever ys. 
That lesteth ay withouten ende ! 
Bidde me God ant oure Ledy, 
To thilke blisse Jesus us sende. Amen. 



15. Robert de Brunne's Account of the Alteration of the 
Coinage by Edward 1. in 1282, from his Transla' 
tion of Peter Langtofis Chronicle : — about 1340 

Now turnes Edward ageyn to London his cite, 
And wille wite certeyn ^ who schent ® has his mone. 

1 Awhile. 2 Grief — French. 8 By turns. 

* Made. ^ Know certainly. * Corrupted. 



ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 171 

Of clippers, of roungers,^ of suilk ^ takes hd questis ; 
Old used traitoures ilk at other hand kestis. 
Ilk these other out said, ilk a schrewe other greves ; * 
Of fele * were handes laid, and hanged ther as theves. 
Edward did smyte ^ rounde peny, halfpeny, ferthing, 
The croise® passed the bounde of alle thorghout the ryng. 
The kynge's side salle be the hede and his name writen ; 
The croyce side what cite it was in coyned and smyten. 
The povere noan ne the preste the peny prayses no thing. 
Men gyf God the lest,^ the fesse ^ him with a ferthing. 
A thousand and two hundred and fourscore yeres mo,® 
Of this mone men wondred first when it gan go.^° 

1 Nippers. 2 Such. 

8 Jlk and iUc a mean every with De Brunne, as they still do in the 
Scottish dialect; and Jcestis is casts; but, perhaps, scarcely more than 
a doubtful sense can be extracted from these two lines, as Hearne has 
printed them. His Glossary affords no aid towards their interpreta- 
tion. 

* Many. 5 Strike. 

6 Cross (the oi or oy being probably pronounced nearly as our o in 
the modern form of the word, or somewhat as the oi in the French 
croix). 

7 Least. 8 They feast. 9 More. 

10 From Hearne's Edition, 238, 239. — Of course the e makes a dis- 
tinct syllable in such words as cite and mone, 

( Craih.) 



IV. MIDDLE ENGLISH, a.d. 1350-1550. 
(Old English.) 

16. Commencement of Minot's Poem on the Battle of 
Halidon Hill, fought A. d. 1333 : — about 1350. 

Trew king, that sittes in trone, 

Unto the I tell my tale, 
And unto the I bid a bone ^ 

For thou ert bute ^ of all my bale : 
Als thou made midelerd and the mone,^ 

And bestes and fowles grete and smale, 
Unto me send thi socore sone, 

And dresce my dedes in this dale.* 

{Craik.) 



17. Commencement of the Vision of Piers Ploughman^ 
from Wright's Edition, 1842 : — about 1360. 

In a somer seson 

Whan softe was the Sonne, 

I shoop me into shroudes ^ 

As I a sheep ^ weere, 

In habite as an heremite 

Unholy of werkes, 

"Went wide in this world 

Wondres to here ; • 

Ac ' on a May morwenynge 

1 Offer a prayer. 2 Boot, remedy. 

8 As thou madest middle-earth and the moon. 

4 Direct my deeds in this vale (of misery). 

6 1 put myself into clothes. 6 Shepherd. ? And. 



ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 173 

On Malverne hilles 
Me befel a ferly,i 
Of fairye me thoghte. 
I was wery ^ for-wandred, 
And went me to reste 
Under a brood ^ bank 
By a bournes syde ; 
And as I lay and lenede, 
And loked on the watres, 
I slombred into a slepyng, 
It sweyed so murye.* 

( Craik. ) 



18. Other passages from Piers Ploughman to show the 
combination of verbs with pronouns, and the allusion 
to Mohin Hood, 2d edition hy Thomas Wright, 1856. 

" Lentestow ^ evere Lordes 

For love of hire mayntenaunce ? " 

" Ye, I have lent to Lordes, 

Loved me nevere after, 

And have y-maad many a knight, 

Bothe mercer and draper, 

That payed nevere for his prentishode 

Noght a peire gloves." 

*' Hastow * pite on povere men. 

That mote nedes borwe ? " 

" I have as much pite of povere men 

As pedlere hath of cattes, 

That wolde kille them, if he cacche hem myghte, 

For coveitise of hir skynnes." 

1 Wonder. 2 Weary. 3 Broad. 

* It sounded so pleasant. ^ Lendest thou. ^ Hast thou. 

11 



174 ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 

" Artow ^ manlich among thi neghebores 

Of thi mete and drynke ? " 

" I am holden," quod he, " as hende 

As hound is in kichene, 

Amonges my neghebores, namely, 

Swiche a name ich have." 

2977-2997. 

If I sholde deye bi this day, 

Me list nought to loke ; 

I kan noght parfitly my pater-noster, 

As the preest it syngeth ; / 

But I kan rymes of Robin Hood, 

And Randolf erl of Chestre ; 

Ac neither of oure Lord ne of oure Lady 

The leeste that evere was maked. 

3273-3281. 



19. Commencement of the Seventh Chapter of Sir John 
MandeviVs Travels, entitled " Of the Pilgrimages 
in Jerusalem, and of the Holy Places thereahoute" 
from the Cotton MS. Titus, C. xvi., which is believed 
to have been written about the year 1400 : — about 
1370.2 

After for to speke of Jerusalem the holy cytee, ye 
schull undirstonde that it stont full faire betwene hilles, 
and there be no ryveres ne welles, but watar cometh by 
condyte from Ebron. And yee schulle understonde that 
Jerusalem of olde tyrae, unto the tyme of Melchisedech, 
was cleped Jebus ; and after it was clept Salem, unto the 
tyme of Kyng David, that put these two names to gider, 

1 Art thou. 

2 This text was first published in a contribution to the Pictorial 
Mstory of England by Sir Henry Ellis. 



ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 175 

and cleped it Jerosolomye. And after that men cleped 
it Jerusalem, and so it is cleped yit. And aboute Jeru- 
salem is the kyngdom of Surrye {Syria). And there 
besyde is the lond of Palestyne. And besyde it is Asco- 
lon. And besyde that is the lond of Maritanie. But 
Jerusalem is in the lond of Judee ; and it is clept Jude 
for that Judas Machabeus was kyng of that contree. 
And it marcheth estward to the kyngdom of Araby ; on 
the south syde to the lond of Egipt ; and on the west 
syde to the Grete See. On the north syde toward the 

kyngdom of Surrye, and to the see of Cypre. 

{CraiJc.) 



20. MandeviVs hook authorized hy the Pope. HcdliwelVs 
Edition, reprinted from the edition of 1725, pp. 
314, 315. 

And zee*schulle undirstonde, zif it lyke zou, that at 
myn Horn comynge, I cam to Rome, and schewed ray 
Lif to oure holy Fadir the Pope, and was assoylled of alle 
that lay in my Conscience, of many a dyverse grevous 
poynt: as men mostejr nedes, that ben in company, 
dwellyng amonges so many a dyverse folk of dyverse 
Secte and of Beleeve, as I have ben. And amonges alle 
I schewed hym this Tretys that I had made aftre inform- 
acioun of men, that knewen of thinges, that I had not seen 
my self ; and also of Marveyles and Customes that I hadde 
seen my self; as fer as God wolde zeve me Grace : and 
besoughte his holy Fadirhode, that my Boke myghten 
be examyned and corrected be Avys of his wyse and 
discreet Conseille. And our holy Fadir, of his special 
grace, remytted my Boke to ben examyned and preved be 
the Avys of his seyd Conseille. Be the whiche, my Boke 



176 ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 

was preeved for trewe ; in so moche that thei schewed 
me a Boke, that my Boke was examynde by, that com- 
prehended fulle moche more, be an hundred part ; be the 
whiche, the Mappa Mundi was made after. And so my 
Boke (alle be it that many men ne list not to zeve cre- 
dence to no thing, but to that that thei seen with hire Eye, 
ne be the Auctour ne the persone never so trewe) is af- 
fermed and preved be our holy Fadir, in maner and forme 
as I have seyd.'^ 



21. The fourth Psalm, — Wycliffite versions of the Scrip- 

tures, 1380.2 

Earlier Version* 

Whan I inwardli clepide, ful out herde me the God of 
my rightwisnesse ; in tribulacioun thou spraddest out to 
me. Haue merci of me ; and full out here myn orisoun. 
Sones of men, hou longe with greuous herte ? Whereto 
looue yee vanyte, and sechen lesing ? And witeth, for 
the Lord hath maad merueilous his seynt ; the Lord ful 
out shal here me, whan I shall crie to hym. Wrathe 
yee, and wileth not synnen ; that yee seyn in youre hertis 
and in youre couchis, have yee compunccioun. Sacri- 
fiseth sacrifise of rightwisnesse, and hopeth in the Lord ; 
many seyn, who shewith to vs goode thingis ? Markid 
is vpon vs the light of thi chere, Lord ; thou gCve glad- 

1 The spelling of this edition diflfers manifestly to some extent from 
the one cited by Craik. The greater number of capital letters may be 
due to the printer in 1725. 

2 According to the text published in The Holy Bible • • • made from 
the Latin Vulgate, by John Wycliffe and his followers : Edited by the 
Rev. Josiah Forshall and Sir Fredeinc Madden, K. H. 4 vols. 4to 
Oxford, 1850. 



ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 177 

nesse in myn herte. Of the frut of whete, win, and oile 
of hem ; thei ben multiplied. In pes into itself ; I shal 
elepe, and reste. For thou Lord ; singulerli in hope hast 
togidere set me. 

Later Version, 

Whanne y inwardli clepid, God of my rightwisnesse 
herde me ; in tribulacioun thou hast alargid to me. 
Haue thou mercy on me ; and here thou my preier. 
Sones of men, how long ben ze of heuy herte ? Whi 
louen ze vanite, and seken a leesyng ? and wite ze that 
the Lord hath maad merueilous his hooli man ; the Lord 
schal here me whanne Y schal crye to hym. Be ze 
wrothe, and nyle ze do synne ; and for tho thingis 
whiche ze seien in zoure hertis and in zoure beddis, be ze 
compunct. Sacrifie ze the sacrifice of rightfulnesse, 
and hope ze in the Lord ; many seien, Who schewide 
goodis to vs ? Lord, the light of thi cheer is markid on 
vs ; thou hast zove gladnesse in myn herte. Thei ben 
multiplied of the fruit of whete, and of wyn ; and of her 
oile. In pees in the same thing ; Y schal slepe, and take 
reste. For thou. Lord ; hast set me singulerli in hope. 



22. Beginning of the \^ih Chapter of St. Luke, from the 
Versions ascribed to Wycliffe and his followers: 
— ahout 1380. 

Earlier Version. 

Forsothe he seide also to his disciplis, Ther was sum 
riche man, that hadde a fermour, ether a baily ; and this 
was defamyd anentis him, as he hadde wastid his goodis. 
And he clepide him, and seide to him. What heere I this 



178 ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 

thing of tbee ? yeld resoun of thi ferme, for now thou 
schalt not mowe holde thi ferme. Forsoth the ferinour 
seide with ynne him silf, What schal I do, for my lord 
takith awey fro me the ferme ? I may not delve, I am 
aschamyd to begge. I woot what I schal do, that, 
whanne I schal be removyd fro the ferme, thei receyve 
me in to her housis. And, alle the dettours of the lord 
clepid to gidere, he seide to the firste, Hou moche owist 
thou to my lord? And he seide to him, An hundrid 
barelis of oyle. And he seide to him, Taak thin obliga- 
cioun, and sitte soon, and wryt fyfti. Afdrward he seide 
to another, Sothli hou moche owist thou ? "Which seide. 
An hundrid mesuris of whete. And he seide to him, 
Tak thi lettris, and wryt foure score. And the lord 
preiside the fermour of wickidnesse, for he hadde don 
prudently ; for the sones of this \vorld ben more prudent 
in her generacioun that the sones of light. And I seie 
to you, make to you frendes of the richesse of wickid- 
nesse, that, whan ye shulen fayle, thei receyve you in to 
everlastynge tabernaclis. 

The difference in the text of the two versions of the New 
Testament is much less than in the Old. The variations are not 
such as to show any marked progress in the language ; some- 
times even older forms occur in the later text, though the idiom 
is on the whole more in the modern style. 

Later Version. 

He seide also to hise disciples, Ther was a riche man, 
that hadde a baili ; and this was defamed to him, as he 
hadde wastid his goodis. And he clepide hym and seide 
to hym, What here Y this thing of thee ? yelde reckynyng 
of thi baili, for thou might not now be baili. And the 
baili seide with ynne him silf, What schal Y do, for my 



ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 179 

lord takith awei fro me the baili ? delfe mai Y not, I 
schame to begge. Y woot what Y schol do, that whanne 
Y am remeued fro the baili, thei resseyue me in to her 
hous. Therfor whanne alle the dettours of his lord 
weren clepid togider, he seide to the firste, How myche 
owist thou to my lord ? and he seide, an hundrid barelis 
of oyle. And he seide to hym, take thi caucioun, and 
sitte soone, and write fifti. Aftirward he seide to another, 
and how myche owist thou ? Which answerde, An hun- 
drid coris of whete. And he seide to hym. Take thi let- 
tris and write foure scoore. And the lord preiside the 
baili of wickydnesse, for he hadde do prudentli ; for the 
sones of this world ben more prudent in ther generacioun 
than the sones of light. And Y seie to you, make ye to 
you freendis of the ritchesse of wickidnesse, that whanne 
ye schulen fayle, thei resseyue you in to everlastj'-nge ta- 
bernaclis. 

The initial Saxon character, which in the second extract from 
the Psalms is printed z, is printed y in the above, as you instead 
of zou ; and when it occurs in the middle of a word, gh, as in 
light. The actual sound was probably diflferent from either, but 
at length passed over into these later forms. 



23. Extract from a Sermon against Miracle-plays^ from 
a MS. volume of English Sermons, written at the 
latter end of the fourteenth century. — ReliquicB An- 
tiqucB, p. 42. 

Here bigynnis a tretise of miraclis pleyinge. Know 
yee, Cristen men, that as Crist God and man is bothe 
weye, trewth, and lif, as seith the gospel of Jon, weye 
to the errynge, trewth to the unknowyng and douting, lif 
to the stryunge to hevene and weryinge, so Crist dude 



180 ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 

nothinge to as but efFectuely in weye of mercy, in trewth 
of ritwesnes, and in lif of yildying everlastynge joye for 
oure continuely morning and sorwynge in this valey of 
teeres. In myraclis, therefore, that Crist dude heere in 
erthe, outher in hymsilf outher in hise seyntis, weren so 
efectuel and in ernest done, that to synful men that 
erren thei broughten forgyvenesse of synne, settynge 
hem in the weye of right beleve ; to doutouse men not 
stedefast, thei broughten in kunnyng to betere plesen 
God and verry hope in God to been stedefast in hym ; 
and to the wery of the weye of God, for the grette pen- 
aunce and suffraunce of the trybulacioun that men moten 
have therinne, thei broughten in love of brynnynge charite, 
to the whiche alle thing is light, and he to suffere dethe, 
the whiche men most dreden, for the everlastynge lyf 
and joye that men moste loven and disiren, of the whiche 
thing verry hope puttith awey alle werinesse heere in the 
weye of God. 



24. From Trevisa^s Translation of Higden^s Polychroni- 
con, Book /, chap* Ux.^ as printed by Tyrwhitt in 
his edition of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, from 
MS. .fl^rZ. 1900: — 1385. 

This apayringe (disparaging) of the birthe tongue is 
by cause of tweye thinges : oon is for children in scole, 
agenes the usage and maner of alle other naciouns, beth 
compelled for to leve her owne langage, and for to con- 
strewe her lessouns and her thingis a Frensche, and 
haveth siththe that the Normans come first into Eng- 
land. Also gentil mennes children beth ytaught for to 
speke Frensche from the tyme that thei beth rokked in 
her cradel, and kunneth speke and playe with a childes 



ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 181 

brooche. And uplondish men wol likne hem selF to 

gentil men, and fondeth with grete bisynesse for to speke 

Frensche, for to be the more ytold of. — (Trevisa.) 

This maner was myche yused to fore the first moreyn 

{murrain, plague), and is siththe som del yehaungide. 

For John Cornwaile, a maistre of grammer, chaungide 

the lore in grammer scole and construction of Frensch 

into Englisch, and Richard Pencriche lerned that maner 

teching of him, and other men of Pencriche. So that 

now, the yere of our lord a thousand thre hundred foure 

score and fyve, of the secund King Rychard after the 

Conquest nyne, in alle the gramer scoles of Englond 

children leveth Frensch, and construeth and lerneth an 

(ill) Englisch, and haveth therby avauntage in oon side 

and desavauntage in another. Her avauntage is, that 

thei lerneth her gramer in lasse tyme than children 

were wont to do. Desavauntage is, that now children 

of gramer scole kunneth no more Frensch that can her 

lifte (knows their left) heele. And that is harm for hem, 

and thei schul (an they shall) passe the see and travaile 

in strange londes, and in many other places also. Also 

gentel men haveth now mych ylefte for to teche her 

children Frensch. 

{Craik.) 



25. Beginning of the Reeve^s Tale, from Chaucer^s Can- 
terbury Tales, after the Text in Wright's Edition, 
1847: — a5own390. 

At Trompyngtoun, nat fer i fra Cantebrigge, 
Ther goth a brook, and over that a brigge, 
Upon the whiche brook then stant a melle ; ^ 
And this is verray sothe that I you telle. 
1 Not fax. 2 Stands a mill. 



182 ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 

A meller was ther dwellyng many a day ; 

As eny pecok he was prowd and gay ; 

Pipenhe coude, and fisshe, and nettys beete,^ 

And turne cuppes, wrastle wel, and scheete ; ^ 

Ay by his belt he bar a long panade,* 

And * of a swerd ful trenchaunt was the blade ; 

A joly popper ^ bar he in his pouche ; 

Ther was no man for perel durst him touche ; 

A Scheflfeld thwitel bar he in his hose ; 

Round was his face, and camois ^ was his nose ; 

As pyled ' as an ape was his skulle ; 

He was a market-beter ^ at the fulle ; 

Ther durste no wight hand upon him legge,^ 



That he ne swar anon he schuld abegge.^*^ 



( Craik.) 



26. From the Persones (Parsoii's) Tale in Chaucer's 
Canterhury Tales, according to Wright's Edition : — 
about 1390. 

A philosopher upon a tyme, that wolde have bete his 
disciple for his grete trespas, for which he was gretly 
amoeved, and brought a yerde (rod) to scoure (score) the 
child ; and whan the child saugh the yerde, he sayde to 
his maister, What thenke ye to do ? I wold bete the, 
quod the maister, for thi correccioun. Forsothe, quod 
the child, ye oughte first correcte youresilf, that han lost 
al your pacience for the gilt of a child. Forsothe, quod 
the maister al wepyng, thou saist soth ; have thou the 
yerde, my deere sone, and correcte me for myn impa- 
cience. 

( Craik.) 

iMend. . 2 Shoot, 

s A kind of two-edged knife. ^ Should apparently be As. 

5 Dagger. 6 Flat. 1 Peeled (bald). 

8 A swaggerer iu the market? ^ Lay. 1° Suffer for. 



ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 183 

27. The Prayer of Chaucer^ which concludes the Canter' 
bury Tales. Wright's Edition, Vol. III.^pp. 188, 189. 

Now pray I to yow all that heren this litel tretis or 
reden it, that if ther be any thing in it that likes hem, 
that therof thay thanke oure Lord Jhesu Crist, of whom 
procedith alle witte and al goodnes ; and if ther be any 
thing that displesith hem, I pray hem that thay arette 
it to the defaute of myn unconnyng, and not to my wille, 
that wolde fayn have sayd better if I hadde connyng ; 
for the book saith, al that is writen for oure doctrine is 
writen. Wherefore I biseke you mekely for the mercy 
of God that ye pray for me, that God have mercy on me 
and forgive me my giltes, and namliche my translaciouns 
and of endityng in worldly vanitees, which I revoke in 
my retracciouns, as in the book of Troyles, the book 
also of Fame, the book of twenty-five Ladies, the book 
of the Duchesses, the book of seint Valentines day and 
of the Parliment of briddes, the Tales of Canturbury, 
alle thilke that sounen into synne, the book of the Leo, 
and many other bokes, if thay were in my mynde or 
remembrannce, and many a song and many a leccherous 
lay, of the whiche Crist for his grete mercy forgive me 
the synnes. But if the translacioun of Boce de conso- 
lacioun, and other bokes of consolacioun and of legend 
of lyves of seints, and Omelies, and moralities, and 
devocioun, that thanke I oure Lord Jhesu Crist, and his 
moder, and all the seintes in heven bisekyng hem that 
thay fro hennysforth unto my lyves ende sende me grace 
to biwayle my gultes, and to studien to the savacioun of 
my soule, and graunte me grace and space of verray 
repentaunce, penitence, confessioun, and satisfaccioun, to 
don in this present lif, thurgh the benigne grace of him 



1S4 ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 

that is king of kynges and prest of alle prestis, that 
bought us with his precious blood of his hert, so that I 
moote be oon of hem at the day of doom that schal be 
saved ; qui cum Patre et Spiriiu sancto vivis et regnas 
Deus per omnia secula. Amen?- 



28. From Weher^s Metrical Romances. The Romance of 
Alisaunder, the beginning of Chapter VI. Vol. i., 
p. 43. Time, 1438. Lines 910-920. 

Clere and faire the somerys day spryng, 
And makith mony departying 
Bytweone knyght and his swetying. 
. Theo sunne ariseth, and fallith the dewyng ; 
Theo nessche clay hit makith clyng, 
Mony is jolif in the mornyng, 
And tholeth deth on the evenyng ! 
N' is in this world so siker thyng 
So is deth, to olde and yyng ! 
The time is nygh of heore wendyng. 

From the Lyfe of Ipomydon. Vol. II. Lines 1-14. 

Mekely, lordynges, gentyll and fre, 
Lysten awhile and herken to me : 
I schall you telle of a kynge, 
A dowghty man withowte lesynge ; 
In his tyme he was full bolde 
A worthy man and well of tolde ; 
Feyre he was on fote and hand, 

1 Whether this is a genuine production of Chaucer, of which there 
is some doubt, or of some priest half penitent for the pleasure he had 
experienced in reading this great author, it belongs to the age, and 
may be regarded as written not far from the year 1400. 



ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 185 

And well belouyd in all that lande ; 
Off body he was styffe and stronge, 
And to no man he wolde do wronge, 
Of Poyle-lond lord was he : 
Gold and sylver he had plente ; ^ 
Hye and low louyd hym alle ; 
Moche honoure to hym was falle. 



29. From Lydgate^s Poem entitled his Testament^ accord* 
ing to HalliweWs Text^ 1840: — about 1450. 

During the tyme of this sesoun Ver, 

I meene the sesoun of my yeerys greene, 

Gynnyng fro childhood stretchith ^ up so fer 

To the yeerys accountyd ful fifteene, 

B' experience, as it was weel seene, 

The gerisshe sesoun straunge of condiciouns 

Dispoosyd to many unbridlyd passiouns ; 

Voyd of resoun, yove to wilfulnesse, 
Froward to vertu, of thrift gafe litil heede, 
Loth to lerne, lovid no besynesse 
Sauf pley or merthe, straunge to spelle or reede, 
Folwyng al appetites longyng to childheede, 
Lihtly tournyng, wylde and seelde sad, 
Weepyng for nouhte and anoon afftir glad. 

For litil wroth to stryve with my felawe, 
As my passiouns did my bridil leede, 
Of the yeerde somtyme I stood in awe ; • 



1 This is the reading in MS. Sari 2255, fol. 60. In MS. Earl. 218, 
fol. 66, it is stretched. 



186 ILLUSTRATIVE SPECBIENS. 

To be scooryd that was al my dreede ; — 
Loth toward scole, lost my tyme indeede, 
Lik a young colt that ran withowte brydil, 
Made my freendys ther good to spend in ydil. 
I hadde in custom to come to scole late, 
Nat for to lerne, but for a contenaunce ; ^ 
With my felawys reedy to debate, 
In jangle and jape ^ was set al my pleasaunce; 
Wherof rebuked this was ray chevisaunce,^ 
To forge a lesyng^ and therupon to muse, 
Whan I trespasyd mysilven to excuse. 

To my bettre did no reverence, 
Of my sovereyns gaf no fors at al,* 
Wex obstynat. by inobedience. 
Ran into gardyns, applys ther I stal ; 
To gadre frutys sparyd hegg nor wal ; 
- To plukke grapys in othir mennys vynes, 
Was moor reedy than for to seyn matjmes. 

(Craik.) 

30. From the Paston Letters written during the reigns of 
Henry VJ., Edward IV., and Richard III. By 
John Fenn. Ramsay's Edition, London, 1849. 
Portion of a letter of Richard Calle to his betroth- 
ed mistress Margery Paston. 1469 — {Spelling 
modernized). 

Mine own lady and mistress, and before God very true 
wife, I with heart full sorrowful recommend me unto 
you, as he that cannot be merry, nor nought shall be till 

1 Appearance. 2 Trick, jest. 3 Contrivance. ^ Lie. 

5 This line seems to be corrupted. Perhaps sovereyns should be 
sufferance. 



ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 187 

it be otherwise with us than it is yet, for this life that we 
lead now is neither pleasure to God nor to the world, 
considering the great bond of matrimony that is made 
betwixt us, and also the great love that hath been and 
as I trust yet is betwixt us, and as on my part never 
greater ; wherefore I beseech Almighty God comfort us 
as soon as it pleaseth him, for we that ought of very 
right to be most together are most asunder, meseemeth 
it is a thousand year ago since that I spake with you, 
I had lever (rather) than all the good in the world I 
might be with you ; alas, alas ! good lady, full little re- 
member they what they do that keep us thus asunder, 
four times in the year are they accursed that hinder 
matrimony ; it causeth many men to deem in them they 
have large conscience in other matters as well as herein ; 
but what lady suffer as ye have done ; and make you 
merry as ye can, for I wis, lady at the long way, God 
will of his righteousness help his servants that mean 
truly, and would live according to his laws, &c. 

I understand, lady, ye have had as much sorrow for 
me as any gentlewoman hath had in the world, as would 
God all that sorrow that ye have rested upon me and 
that ye had been discharged of it, for I wis, lady, it is 
to me a death to hear that ye be entreated otherwise 
than ye ought to be ; this is a painful life that we lead, I 
can not live thus without it be a displeasure to God. . . . 



31. Conclusion of Gaxton's English Translation of Hig- 
derCs Polychronicon : — 1482. 

And here I make an ende of this lytel werke as nygh 
as I can fynde after the forme of the werk to fore made 
by Ranulph monk of Chestre. And where as ther is 



188 ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 

fawte, I beseche them that shal rede it to correcte it. 
For yf I coude have foundeii moo storyes I wold have 
sette in hit moo ; but the substaunce that I can fy nde 
and knowe I have shortly sette hem in this book, to 
thentente that such thynges as have ben done syth the 
deth or ende of the sayd boke of Polycronycon shold be 
had in remembraunce and not putte in oblyvyon ne for- 
getynge ; prayenge all them that shall see this symple 
werke to pardone me of my symple and rude wrytynge. 
Ended the second day of Juyll the xxii yere of the regno 
of Kynge Edward the Fourth, and of the Incarnacion of 
oure Lord a thousand four honderd foure score and 
tweyne. 

Fynysshed per Caxton. (Craik.) 



32. Character of Richard the Third, hy Sir TJiomas More, 
From Holinshed's Chronicles, Vol. 111., 4:to., Lon^ 
don, 1808, p. 362. Fro?n the Life of Edward the 
Fifth. Written 1513, Printed 1586. 

Richard the third sonne, of whome we now intreat, 
was in wit and courage equall with either of them, in 
bodie and prowesse farre vnder them both, litle of 
stature, ill featured of limmes, crooke backed, his left 
shoulder much higher than his right, hard fauored of 
visage, and such as is in states called warlie, in other 
men otherwise ; he was malicious, wrathfull, enuious, 
and from afore his birth euer fro ward. It is for truth 
reported, that the duchesse his mother had so much adoo 
in hir trauell, that she could not be delivered of him 
vncut ; and that he came into the world with the feet 
forward, as men be borne outward, and (as the same 
runneth also) not vntoothed, whether men of hatred 



ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 189 

report aboue the truth, or else that nature changed hir 
course in his beginning, which in the course of his life 
manie things vnnaturalie committed. So that the full 
confluence of these quahties, with the defects of fauour 
and amiable proportion, gave proof to this rule of physi- 
ognomic. 

Distortum vultum sequitur distorsio morum. 

None euill capteine was he in warre, as to which his 
disposition was more meetly than for peace. Sundrie 
victories had he and sometimes onerthrowes ; but neuer 
on default as for his owne person, either of hardiesse or ^ 
politike order. Free was he called of dispense, and 
somewhat aboue his power liberall ; with large gifts he 
gat him vnstedfast friendship, for which he was faine to 
pill and spoile in other places, and gat him stedfast 
hatred. He was close and secret, a deepe dissembler, 
lowlie of countenance, arrogant of heart, outwardlie 
companiable where he inwardlie hated, not letting to 
kisse whome he thought to kill ; despitious and cruell, 
not for euill will alway, but often for ambition, and either 
for the suretie or increase of his est"Ste. 



33. From the Prologue of Froissart. Lord Berners* 
Translation Reprinted from Pynson^s Editiouy 
of 1523 and 1525. 2 vols. Ato. London, 1812. 

To thentent that the honorable and noble aventures 
of featis of armes done and achyued by y* warres of 
Frace and Inglande shulde notably be inregistered and 
put in perpetuall memory, whereby the prewe and har- 
dy may have ensample to incourage them in theyr well 
doyng, I syr John Froissart, wyll treat and recorde an 
hystory of great louage and preyse but, or I begyn, I re- 
12 



190 ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 

quire the sauyour of all the worlde, who of nothyng 
created al thynges, that he wyll gyue me such grace 
and vnderstandynge, that I may cotinue and perseuer 
in such >vyse, that whoso this proces redeth or hereth, 
may take pastauce, pleasure, and ensample. It is sayd 
of trouth, that al buyldynges are masoned and wroughte 
of dyuerse stones, and all great ryuers are gurged and as- 
serablede of diuers surges and sprynges of water; in 
lykewyse all sciences are extraught and compiled of di- 
uerse clerkes of that one wryteth, another, paraventure, 
is ignorant ; but by the famous wryting of auncient auc- 
tours, all thyngis ben knowen in one place or other. 
Than to attaygne to the mater that I have entreprised, 
I wyll begyn. 

Fyrst, by the grace of God and of the blessed Virgyn, 
our Lady Saynt Mary, from whom all comfort and con- 
solation procedeth, and wyll take my foundation out of y* 
true cronicles somtyme copyled by the right reuerend 
discrete, and sage maister, John la Bele, sometyme 
chanon in Saint Lambartis, of Liege, who with good 
herte and due diligence dyd his true deuore in wrytyng 
this noble cronicle, and dyd contynue it all his lyfes 
dayes, in followyng the trouth as nere as he myght, to 
his great charge and coste in sekyng to haue the per- 
fyght knowledge therof. 



34. A Letter written hy Sir Thomas More to his Wife 
after the Burning of his House at Chelsea^ from his 
« Works;' hy Rastell, 1557 : — 1528. 

Maistres Alyce, In my most harty wise I recommend 
me to you ; and, whereas I am enfourmed by my son 
Heron {Jerome"] of the losse of our barnes and of our 



ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 191 

neighbours also, with all the corn that was therein, albeit 
(saving God's pleasure) it is gret pitie of so much good 
corne lost, yet, sith it hath liked hym to sende us such a 
chaunce, we must and are bounden, not only to be con- 
tent, but also to be glad of his visitacion. He sente us all 
that we have loste ; and, sith he hath by such a chaunce 
taken it away againe, his pleasure be fulfilled. Let us 
never grudge ther at, but take it in good worth, and 
hartely thank him, as well for adversetie as for prosper- 
itie. And peradventure we have more cause to thank 
him for our losse then for our winning ; for his wisdome 
better seeth what is good for us then we do our selves. 
Therfore I pray you be of good chere, and take all the 
howshold with you to church, and there thauke God, both 
for that he hath given us, and for that he hath taken from 
us, and for that he hath left us, which, if it please hym, he 
can encrease when he will. And, if it please hym to 
leave us yet lesse, at his pleasure be it. 

I pray you to make some good ensearche what my 
poore neighbours have lost, and bid them take no thought 
therfore ; for, and I shold not leave myself a spone, there 
shal no pore neighbour of mine here no losse by any 
chaunce happened in my house. I pray you be, with 
my children and your household, merry in God. And 
devise some what with your frendes, what waye wer best 
to take for provision to be made for corne for our house- 
hold, and for sede thys yere comming, if ye thinke it good 
that we kepe the ground stil in our handes. And, whether 
ye think it good that we so shall do or not, yet I think 
it were not best sodenlye thus to leave it all up, and to 
put away our folk of our farme till we have somwhat 
advised us thereon. How belt, if we have more nowe 
then ye shall nede, and which can get them other mais- 



192 ILLUSTRATIVE SPECKVIENS. 

ters, ye may then discharge us of them. But I would 
not that any man were sodenly sent away he wote nere 
wether. ... 

( Craih) 



35. Beginning of TyndaVs translation of the IQth Chap' 
ter of St. Luhe, from the second edition of his New 
Testament {as reprinted iii the " English Hexapla,^ 
1841) ; with the Variations^ included within brack- 
ets, of the passage as given in his Treatise entitled 
" The Parable of the Wicked Mammon : " — 1534 
and 1536. 

And he sayd also unto his disciples, Ther was a cer- 
tayne rych [certain riche] man, which [the whiche] had 
a stewarde [steward] that was acused [y* was accused] 
unto him that [hym y*] he had wasted his goodes [goods]. 
And he called him, and sayd unto him, How is it that I 
heare [hear] thys of the ? Give a comptes [accomptes] 
of thy steward shippe [steward shypp], for thou mayste 
[maiest] be no longer [my] stewarde. The stewarde 
[steward] sayd with in [within] him selfe, What shall I 
do [shal I doo] ? for my master will [wil] take awaj'-e 
[away] from me the stewarde shippe [my stewardshypp]. 
I cannot digge [dygge], and to begge I am a shamed 
[ashamed]. I woote [wot] what to do, that when [whan] 
I am put out of the stewardshippe [ray stewardship], 
they may receave [receyve] me into their houses. Then 
called he all [al] his master's detters, and sayd [said] 
unto the fyrst [firste], How moche [muche] owest thou 
unto my master ? And he sayd [said], An hondred [an 
c] tonnes of oyle [oile]. And he sayd to [said unto] 
him, Take thy bill [byl], and syt donne [sit down] quick- 



ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 193 

ly, and wryte fiftie [write 7.] Then sayd he to another, 
What ovvest thou ? And he sayde [sayd], An hondred 
[an c] quarters of wheate [wheat]. He sayd to him 
[said unto hym], Take thy bill [byl] and write foure 
scoore \_lxxx.']. And the lorde [lord] commended the 
unjust stewarde [steward], because he had done wysly 
[don wisely]. For the chyldren [children] of this 
worlde [thys world] are in their kynde wyser [kind 
wiser] then the chyldren [children] of lyght [light.] 
And I saye [say] also unto you, make you frendes 
[frindes] of the wiked Mammon, that, whan ye shall 
departe [shall have nede], they may receave [receyve] 
you into everlastinge [in everlasting] habitacions. 

( Craih.) 

36. beginning of the l^th Chapter of St. Luke, from the 
Version in what is called Granmer's Bible (as re- 
printed in the ^^ English Hexapla^"* 1841) : — 1539. 

And he sayd also unto his discyples. Ther was a cer- 
tayn ryche man, whych had a stewarde, and the same 
was accused unto hym, that he had wasted hys goodes. 
And he called hym, and sayd unto hym : How is it that 
I heare this of the? Geve accomptes of thy steward- 
shyp: For thou mayste be no longer stewarde. The 
stewarde sayde wythin hym selfe : what shall I do ? 
for my Master taketh awaye from me the stewarde- 
shyppe. I can not dygge, and to begge I am asham- 
ed. I wote what to do, that when I am put out of the 
stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. 

So whan he had called all hys masters detters together, 
he sayd unto the first: how moch owest thou unto my 
master? And he sayd: an hondred tonnes of oyle. 
And he sayd unto hym : take thy byll, and syt doune 



194 ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 

quyckly and wryte fyftye. Then sayd he to another : 
how moch owest thou? And he sayde: an hondred 
quarters of wheate. He sayd unto hym : Take thy 
byll, and wryte foure scoore. And the lorde commend- 
ed the unjust stewarde, because he had done wysly. 
For the chyldren of thys worlde are in their nacyon, 
wyser then the chyldren of lyght. And I saye unto 
you : make you frendes of the unryghteous mammon, 
that when ye shal have nede, they may receave you 

into everlastynge habitacyons. 

( Craik.) 



37. Sonnet by Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey : — about 

1545. 

The soote^ season, that bud and bloom forth brings, 

With green hath clad the hill and eke the vale ; 
The nightingale with feathers new she sings ; 

The turtle to her make ^ hath told her tale ; 
Summer is come, for every spray now springs ; 

The hart hath hung his old head on the pale ; 
The buck in brake his winter-coat he flings ; 

The fishes fleet with new-repaired scale ; 
The adder all her slough away she flings ; 

The swift swallow pursueth the flies smale ; ^ 
The busy bee her honey now she mings ; ^ 

Winter is worn that was the flowers bale ; 
And thus I see among these pleasant things 

Each care decays, and yet my sorrow springs ! 

( Craik.) 
The spelling is modernized in this specimen. 

1 Sweet. 2 Mate. ^ Small. * Mingles. 



ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS, 195 



V. MODERN ENGLISH:— Fkom a. d. 1550. 

38. Beginning of the l^th Chapter of St. Luhe,from the 
Version in the Geneva New Testament (as reprinted 
in the ^^ English Hexapla^' 1841) : — 1557. 

And he sayd also unto his disciples, There was a cer- 
tain riche man, which had a stewarde, and he was accus- 
ed unto him, that he wasted his goodes. And he called 
hym, and said unto him, How is it that I heare this of 
thee ? Geve acountes of thy stewardeshyp : for thou 
mayst be no longer stewarde. The stewarde sayd within 
him self. What shal I do, for my master wyl take away 
from me the stewardshyp? I can not dygge,and to begge 
I am ashamed. I wot what to do, that when I am put 
out of the stewardshyp they may receave me into their 
houses. 

Then called he all his masters detters, and sayd unto 
the fyrst, How muche owest thow unto my master? And 
he sayd. An hundred mesures of oyle, and he sayed to 
him, Take thy obligation, and syt downe quickly, and 
wryte fyfty. Then sayed he to another, How muche 
owest thou ? and he sayd, An hundred mesures of wheat, 
then he sayd to him. Take thyne obligation, and wryte 
foure score. And the Lord commended the unjust stew- 
arde, because he had done wysely. Wherfore the chyl- 
dren of this worlde are in their kynde wyser then the 
chyldren of light. And I say unto you. Make you 
friendes with the riches of iniquitie, that when ye shal 
departe, they may receave you into everlasting habita- 
tions. 

iCraiJc.) 



196 ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 

89. Commencement of Sackville's Induction to the Third 
Part of " The Mirror for Magistrates :" — 1559. 

The wrathfull winter, proching ^ on apace, 
With blustering blasts had all ybarde the treen,* 
And old Saturnus, with his frosty face, 
With chilling cold had pearst the tender greene ; 
The mantles rent, wherein enwrapped beene 
The gladsom groves that now^ lay ouerthrowne, 
The tapets ^ torne and every blome downe blowne. 

The soyle, that erst so seemly was to scene, 

Was all despoyled of her beauties hewe ; 

And soote-fresh flowers, wherewith the sommers queene 

Had clad the earth, now Boreas blasts downe blewe ; 

And small foules, flocking, in theyr song did rewe 

The winters wrath, wherewith ech thing defaste 

In woefull wise bewayld the sommer past. 

( Craih) 



40. From Ascham*s ^^Schoolmaster:" — about 1563. 

Quick wits commonly be apt to take, unapt to keep ; 
soon hot, and desirous of this and that ; as cold and soon 
weary [as soon cold and weary?] of the same again; 
more quick to enter speedily than able to pierce far; 
even like over-sharp tools, whose edges be very soon 
turned. Such wits delight themselves in easy and pleas- 
ant studies, and never pass far forward in high and hard 
sciences. And therefore the quickest wits commonly 
may prove the best poets, but not the wisest orators ; 
ready of tongue to speak boldly, not deep of judgment 

1 Approaching. 3 Bared the trees. 8 Hangings, leaves. 



ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 197 

either for good counsel or wise writing. Also for man- 
ners and life, quick wits commonly be in desire new- 
fangled; in purpose unconstant; light to promise any- 
thing ; ready to forget every thing, both benefit and 
injury ; and thereby neither fast to friend nor fearful to 
foe ; inquisitive of every trifle ; not secret in the greatest 
affairs ; bold with any person ; busy in every matter ; 
soothing such as be present ; nipping any that is absent ; 
of nature, also, always flattering their betters, envying 
their equals, despising their inferiors ; and, by quickness 
of wit, very quick and ready to like none so well as 

themselves. 

{CraiJc.) 
The spelling is modernized in this specimen. 



41. From the ^^ Schole Master*^ Roger Ascham: — He- 
printed in Ato. London, 1761. pp. 243, 244. 
1571. 

Take hede therefore, ye great ones in the court, yea 
though ye be the greatest of all, take hede what ye do ; 
take heed how ye live : for as you great ones use to do, 
so all meane men love to do. You be'indeed makers or 
marrers, of all mens maners within the realme. For 
though God hath placed you to be chief in making of 
lawes, to beare greatest authoritee, to commend all 
others ; yet God doth order that all your lawes, all your 
authority, all your comraandmentes, do not half so moch 
with meane men, as doth your example and maner of 
hving. And for example, even in the greatest matter, if 
you yourselves do serve God gladlie and orderlie for con- 
science sake, not coldhe, and somtyme for maner sake, 
you carie all the court with you, and the whole realm 
beside, earnestlie and orderlie to do the same. If you do 



198 ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 

otherwise, you be the onlie authors of all misorders in 
religion, not onlie to the court e, but to all Englande be- 
side. Infinite shall be made cold in religion by your ex- 
ample, that never were hurt by reading of books. . . . 

What praise shold they wynne to themselves, what 
commoditie shold they bring to their contrie, that would 
thus deserve to be pointed at ; " Behold there goeth the 
author of good order, the guide of good men" ? I could 
say more, and yet not over moch. But perchance some 
w^ill say, I have stepte to farre out of my schole into the 
commonwelthe. 



42. From Sir Philip Sidney's ^^ Apologie for Poetrie :^*-^ 

about 1580. 

The Philosopher, therefore, and the Historian are they 
which would win the gole ; the one by precept, the other 
by example. But both, not having both, do both halte. 
For the Philosopher, setting downe with thorny argument 
the bare rule, is so hard of utterance, and so mistie to bee 
conceived, that one that hath no other guide but him shall 
wade in him till hee be olde before he shall finde sufficient 
cause to bee honest : for his knowledge standeth so upon 
the abstract and generall, that happie is that man who 
may understande him, and more happie that can applye 
what hee dooth understand. On the other side, the His- 
torian, wanting the precept, is so tyed, not to what shoulde 
bee, but to what is, to the particuler truth of things, and 
not to the generall reason of things, that hys example 
draweth no necessary consequence, and therefore a lesse 
fruitful doctrine. 

Now dooth the peereless Poet perfonne both ; for, 
whatsoever the philosopher sayth should be doone, hee 



ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 199 

giveth a perfect picture of it in some one by whom hee 
presupposeth it was doone ; so as he coupleth the generall 
notion with the particuler example. A perfect picture, 
I say ; for he yeeldeth to the powers of the minde an 
image of that whereof the Philosopher bestoweth but a 
woordish description, which dooth neyther strike, pierce, 
nor possesse the sight of the soule so much as that other 
dooth. For as, in outward things, to a man that had 
never seene an elephant or a rinoceros, who should tell 
him most exquisitely all theyr shapes, cuUour, bignesse, 
and particular markes, or, of a gorgeous pallace the archi- 
tecture, with declaring the full beauties might well make 
the hearer able to repeate, as it were, by rote all hee had 
heard, yet should never satisfie his inward conceit with 
being witnes to it selfe of a truly lively knowledge ; but 
the same man, as soone as hee might see those beasts 
well painted, or the house wel in modell, should straight- 
waies grow, without need of any discription, to a judiciall 
comprehending of them; so no doubt the philosopher, 
with his learned definition, bee it of virtue, vices, matters 
of publick policie, or privat government, replenisheth the 
memory with many infallible grounds of wisdom ; which, 
notwithstanding, lye darke before the imaginative and 
judging powre, if they bee not illuminated or figured 

foorth by the speaking picture of Poesie. 

(Craih.) 



43. Beginning of the lUh Chapter of St. Luhe, from 
the version in the Rheims New Testament (as re- 
printed in the '^English Hexapla") : — 1582. 

And he said also to his Disciples, There was a certaine 
riche man that had a bailife : and he was il reported of 



200 ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 

unto hiin, as he that had wasted his goods. And he 

called him, and said to him, What heare I this of thee ? 

render account of thy baihship : for now thou canst no 

more be bailife. And the bailife said within him self, 

What shal I doe, because my lord taketh away from me 

the bailiship ? digge I am not able, to begge I am 

ashamed. I know what I wil doe, that when I shal be 

removed from the bailiship, they may receive me into 

their houses. Therefore calling together every one of 

his lords detters, he said to the first. How much doest 

thou owe my lord ? But he saith. An hundred pipes of 

oile. And he said to him, Take thy bil : and sit downe, 

quickly write fiftie. After that he said to an other. But 

thou, how much doest thou owe ? Who said. An hun- 

dreth quarters of wheat. He said to him. Take thy 

bil, and write eightie. And the lord praised the bailife 

of iniquitie, because he had done wisely : for the children 

of this world, are wiser then the children of light in their 

generation. And I say to you, Make unto you frendes 

of the mammon of iniquitie : that when you faile, they 

may receive you into the eternal tabernacles. 

( Craik.) 



44. From a Discourse of English Poetrie hj William 
Webbe, London, 1586, Reprinted in " Ancient Criti- 
cal Essays " by Joseph Haslewood, London, 1815. 
Vol. ILpp. 32, 33. 

The first of our English Poets that I have heard of, 
was lohn Gower, about the time of King Rychard the 
seconde, as it should seeme by certayne coniectures bothe 
a Knight, and questionlesse a singuler well learned man ; 
whose workes I could wysh they were all whole and per- 



ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 201 

feet among us, for no doubt they contained very much 
deepe knowledge and delight ; which may be gathered by 
his freend Chawcer, who speaketh of him oftentimes in 
diuer places of hys workes. Chawcer, who for that ex- 
cellent fame which hee obtayned in his Poetry, was 
always accounted the God of English Poets (such a 
tytle for honours sake hath beene given him) was next 
after, if not equall in time to Gower ; and hath left many 
workes, both for delight and profitable knowledge, farre 
exceeding any other that as yet euer since hys time di- 
rected theyr studies that way. Though the manner of 
his stile may seeme blunt and course to many fine Eng- 
lish eares at these dayes, yet in truth, if, it be equally 
pondered, and with good iudgraent aduised, and confirmed 
with the time wherein he wrote, a man shall perceive 
thereby euen a true picture, a perfect shape of a right 
Poet. He by his delightsome vayne, so gulled the eares 
of men with his deuises, that, although corruption bear 
such sway in most matters, that learning and truth might 
skant bee admitted to shewe itself, yet without controll- 
ment, myght hee gyrde at the vices and abuses of all 
states, and gawle with very sharpe and eger inventions, 
which he did so learnedly and pleasantly, that none there- 
fore would call him into question. For such was his bolde 
spyrit, that what enormities he saw in any, he would not 
spare to pay them home, eyther in playne words or els in 
some prety and pleasaunt couert, that the simplest might 
espy him. 



202 ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 

45. The Reply of Belphoehe to Braggadocio^ in the Third 
Canto of the Second Booh of Spenser's ^^ Faerie 
Queene : " — about 1590. 

" Whoso in pompe of prowd estate," quoth she, 

" Does swim, and bathes himselfe in courtly blis, 

Does waste his daies in dark obscuritee, 

And in oblivion ever buried is : 

Where ease abownds yt's eath ^ to do amis : 

But who his limbs with labours, and his mynd 

Behaves ^ with cares, cannot so easy mis. 

Abroad in armes, at home in studious kynd. 

Who seekes with painfull toile shall Honor soonest fynd. 

" In woods, in waves, in warres she wonts to dwell, 

And wil be found with perill and with paine ; 

Ne can the man that moulds in ydle cell 

Unto her happy mansion attaine ; 

Before her gate High God did Sweate ordaine 

And wakefull Watches ever to abide : 

But easy is the way and passage plaine 

To Pleasures pallace : it may soone be spide, 

And day and night her dores to all stand open wide." 

( Craik.) 



>^4:^. From an Apologie of Poetrie hy Sir John Haring- 
ton, 1591. — Reprinted by Haslewood, Essays, Vol. 
IL p. 142. 

Sir Thomas Moore a man of gi'eat wisdome & learn- 
ing, but yet a little enclined (as good wits are many times) 
to scoffing, when one had brought him a booke of some 
shallow discourse, and preassed him very hard to have 
1 Easy. 2 Employs, occupies. 



ILLUSTEATIVE SPECIMENS. 203 

his opinion of it, aduised the partie to put it into verse ; 
the plaine meaning man in the best maner he could did 
so, and a twelve-month after at the least, came with it to 
Sir Thomas, who slightly perusing it, gave it this enco- 
miu, that now there was rime in it, but afore it had neither 
rime nor reason. If any ma had ment to serve me so, 
yet I haue preuented him ; for sure I am he shall find 
rime in mine, and if he be not voyd of reason, he shall 
find reason to. Though for the matter, I can challenge 
no praise, hauing but borowed it, and for the verse I do 
challenge none, being a thing that euerybody that neuer 
scarce bayted their horse at the University take upon 
them to make. 



47, Description of the Irish Mantle,from Spenser s " View 
of the State of Ireland:" — about 1595. 

It is a fit house for an out-law, a meet bed for a rebel, 
and an apt cloke for a thiefe. First, the out-law, being 
for his many crimes and villanyes banished from the 
townes and houses of honest men, and wandring in waste 
places, far from danger of law, maketh his mantle his 
house, and under it covereth himselfe from the wrath of 
heaven, from the offence of the earth, and from the sight 
of men. When it raineth it is his pent-house ; when it 
bloweth it is his tent ; when it freezeth it is his taberna- 
cle. In summer he can wear it loose, in winter he can 
wrap it close ; at all times he can use it ; never heavy, 
never cumbersome. Likewise, for a rebell it is as ser- 
viceable. For in his warre that he maketh (if at least it 
deserves the name of- warre), when he still flyeth from 
his foe, and lurketh in the thicke woods and sti'aite 
passages, waiting for advantages, it is his bed, yea and 



204 ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 

almost his household stuff. For the wood is his house 
against all weathers, and his mantle is his couch to sleep 
in. Therein he wrappeth himself round, and couch- 
eth himselfe strongly against the gnats, which in that 
country doe more annoy the naked rebels whilst they 
keepe the woods, and doe more sharply wound them, than 
all their enemies swords or spears, which can seldome 
come nigh them. Yea and oftentimes their mantle ser- 
veth them, when they are neere driven, being wrapped 
about their left arme, instead of a target, for it is hard to 
cut thorough with a sword ; besides, it is light to beare, 
light to throw away ; and, being, as they commonly 
are, naked, it is to them all in all. Lastly, for a theife 
it is so handsome, as it may seem it was first invented 
for him ; for under it he may cleanly convey any fit pil- 
lage that commeth handsomely in his way, and when he 
goeth abroad in the night in free-booting it is his best 
and surest friend ; for, lying, as they often do, two or 
three nights together abroad to watch for their booty, 
with that they can prettily shroud themselves under a 
bush or bank side till they may conveniently do their 
errand ; and when all is over he can in his mantle passe 
through any town or company, being close hooded over 
his head, as he useth, from knowledge of any to whom he 

is indangered. ... 

( Craik.) 



48. JSacon*s Essays. Edition of 1597. Reprinted in 
American Edition, 1860. Vol. XII. pp. 291, 292. 



OF STUDIES. 



Studies serue for pastimes, for ornaments and for abili- 
ties. Their chiefe use for pastime is in priuateness and 



ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 205 

retiring ; for oriiaraente is in discourse, and for abilitie is 
in iudgement. For expert men can execute, but learned 
men are fittest to iudge or censure. 

To spend too much time in them is slouth ; to use them 
too much for ornament is affectation ; to make iudgement 
wholly by their rules, is the humour of a scholler. They 
perfect Nature^ and are perfected by experience. Craftie 
men contemne them, simple men admire them, wise men 
use them : for they teach not their owne vse, but that is 
a wisedome without them ; and aboue them wonne by 
observation. Read not to contradict, nor to belieue, but 
to waigh and consider. Some bookes are to be tasted, 
others to bee swallowed, and some few to be chewed and 
digested: That is, some bookes are to be read only in 
partes ; others to be read, but cursorily, and some few to 
be read wholly and with diligence and attention. Read- 
ing maketh a full man, conference a readye man, and 
writing an exacte man. And therefore, if a man write 
little he had neede haue a great memorie, if he conferre 
little, he had neede haue a present wit, and if he reade 
little, he had neede haue much cunning, to seeme to 
know that he doth not. Histories make men wise ; poets 
wittie ; the mathematics subtle ; naturall Phylosophie 
deepe : morall graue ; Logicke and Rhetoricke able to 
contend. 



49. Beginning of the l^th Ghapter of St. Luke, from 
the Authorized Version (as given in the " English 
iTexopZa"):— 1611. 

And hee said also unto his disciples. There was a cer- 
taine rich man which had a Steward, and the same was 
accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. And he 
13 



206 ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 

called him, and said unto him, How is it that I heare this 
of thee ? Give an accompt of thy stewardship : for thou 
mayest bee no longer Steward. Then the Steward said 
within himselfe. What shall I doe, for my lord taketh away 
from mee the Stewardship ? I cannot digge, to begge I 
am ashamed. I am resolved what to doe, that when I am 
put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their 
houses. So hee called every one of his lords detters unto 
him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto 
my lord ? And hee said an hundred measures of oyle. 
And hee said unto him. Take thy bill, and sit downe 
quickly, and write fiftie. Then saide hee to another. And 
how much owest thou ? And hee said. An hundred meas- 
ures of wheat. And hee saide unto him. Take thy bill, 
and write fourescore. And the lord commended the unjust 
Steward, because hee had done wisely : for the children of 
this world are in their generation wiser then the children 
of light. And I say unto you. Make to your selves friends 
of the mammon of unrighteousnesse, that when ye faile, 
they may receive you into everlasting habitations. * 

( Craik.) 



50. From Booker's " Ecclesiasticall Politie." Book 1. § 7. 
Works, Fol. London, 1617. 

By reason man attaineth vnto the knowledge of things 
that are and are not sensible. It resteth therefore that 
wee search how man attaineth vnto the knowledge of 
such things vnsensible, as are to be known that they may 
be done. Seeing then that nothing can moue vnless there 
be some end, the desire whereof prouoketh vnto motion ; 
how should that diuine power of the Soule, that Spirit of 
our mind, as the Apostle termeth it, euer stir itselfe unto 
action, vnlesse it haue the like spurre ? The end for 



ILLUSTRATIVE SPECBIENS. 207 

which we are moued to worke is sometimes the goodnesse 
which we conceiue of the very working itselfe, without 
any further respect at all ; and the cause that procureth 
action is the meere desire of action, no other good besides 
being thereby intended. Of certain turbulent wits it is 
said lllis quieta movere magna merces videhatur. They 
thought the verie disturbance of things established, an 
hire sufficient to set them on to worke. Sometimes 
that which we doe is referred to a further end, without 
the desire whereof we should leave the same undone, as 
in their Actions that gave Almes to purchase thereby the 
prayse of men. Man in perfection of nature being made 
according to the likeness of his Maker, resembleth him 
also in the manner of working ; so that whatsoever we 
worke as men, the same we doe wittingly worke and 
frely ; neither are we according to the manner of nat- 
urall agents any way so tyed, but that it is in our power 
to leave the things we doe undone. 



51. From the Preface to the " Ephemeris Parliamentarian 
Fol. London, 1654. 

One of the most lawfull wayes whereby man in some 
sort may be said to revenge himself of the shortnesse of his 
life, and extend the measure thereof to a larger propor- 
tion then nature allowes him is by the studie of Historie. 
For Historie is the remembrancer of the time past, it is 
the monument generall erected over actions long since 
dead and interred, acquainting such as read the Epitaph 
thereon with the most remarkable passages of the ages 
past ; so that a Dwarf by the advantage of the ascent of 
History, may suddenly start up (if not a Giant) one of 
competent stature to oversee all transactions long before 
him. 



208 ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 

But of all Histories none is more pleasant or profitable 
then those of our Native Country, which, as it is an Island, 
and so a little entire world in it self, hath in all ages 
afforded as many signall ohservahles as any content of 
ground of the same proportion, neither Greece nor Italie 
it selfe excepted, which indeed overmatch us not in Bis- 
tories, but in Historians. Otherwise if workmen might 
be had, as fair an Edifice might be erecied of English 
affaires, such the plenty and curiosity of materials con- 
currino; thereunto. 



52. From ^^Boyer's History of William HI. " Vol. Z, p. 
114. London, 1703. 

Not long after the world was astonish'd to hear that 
the French King had entirely abandon'd Messina and all 
Sicily. Some ascribed it to meer Necessity, and others 
to a Design of pursuing the Conquest of Flanders with 
redoubled vigour and application. Howsoever it was, 
the Parliament of England were of this last opinion ; and 
therefore to stop his career they petitioned the King to 
Declare open War against him, and granted His Majesty 
a Poll-Bill, Prohibiting by the same Act the Importation 
of all French Commodities. King Charles, who was now 
desirous to enter into a League Avith the Empire, Spain, 
and the United Provinces, would oblige them to make 
the same Prohibition in relation to French Goods ; but 
while the Hollanders were demurring upon the last 
Point, believing that such a Prohibition would ruin their 
Trade, an unexpected Accident fell out that chang'd the 
whole Scene of Affaires.^ 

1 The change in orthography since the time of the preceding extract 
is worthy of notice. See more on this point at the close of the next. 



ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 209 

53. From Sir William's Temple Essay upon the Ancient 
aifd Modern Learning, Worlcs. Fol. London, 
1740. VolL,p.lbl, 

Whoever converses much among the old Books, will 
be something hard to please among the New ; yet these 
must have their Part too in the Leisure of an idle Man, 
and have many of them their Beauties as well as their 
Defaults. Those of Story, or Relations of Matters of 
Fact, have a value from their substance as much as from 
their Form ; and the Variety of Events is seldom with- 
out Entertainment or Instruction how indifferently so- 
ever the Tale is told. Other Sorts of Writings have little 
of Esteem, but what they receive from the Wit, Learning, 
or Genius of the Authors, and are seldom met with of 
any Excellency, because they do but trace over the 
Paths that have been beaten by the Ancients, or Com- 
ment, Critick and Flourish upon them ; and are at best 
but copies after those Originals, unless upon Subjects 
never touched by them, such as are all that relate to 
the different Constitutions of Religions, Laws, or Govern- 
ments in several Countries, with all Matters of _ Con- 
troversy that arise upon them.^ 

1 The orthography here with the exception of a single word (Crit- 
ick) is the same as now in use, save that the nouns begin with a 
capital letter, and the same honor is extended to emphatic verbs, as 
Comment, Critich, and Flourish. This author illustrates the largest use 
of capital letters, unless the use be due to the caprice of the printer. 
Many authors or printers employed them to mark the more emphatic 
words, and some never diflPered much in this respect from the generally 
received usage of the present day. The works of Milton reprinted at 
London in 1753, and the works of Bolingbroke published in 1754, 
agree with the modern style. It was during the first half of the last 
century that capitals Avere used most freely, somewhat after the man- 
ner of our kinsmen, the Germans. 



210 ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 

LETTEES. 



Original Letters ^ of persons of high rank at different 
periods. — From Ellis* Letters illustrative of English 
History, 

I. 

Richard, Earl of Cambridge, to King Henry the Fifth, 
suing for mercy after his condemnation. Second 
Series, Vol. L p. 48. 1415. 

Myn most dredfuU and sovereyne lege Lord, i Richard 
York zowre humble subgyt and very lege man, beseke 
zou of Grace of al maner offenses wych y haue done or 

1 The orthography of these letters will show the usage, or lack of 
usage, of the first classes in society, when as yet there was no settled 
standard. It is only since the publication of Johnson's Dictionary, 
and the higher esteem in which literary men are held, that much im- 
portance has been attached to this essential to a good education. 
The following passage from Macaulay's Essays will serve as authority 
on the subject (he is speaking of Lord Bute): — "It is said that his 
spelling was incorrect. But though in our time incorrect spelling is 
justly considered as a prqpf of sordid ignorance, it would be unjust to 
apply the same rule to people who lived a century ago. The novel of 
Sir Charles Grandison was published about the time at which Lord 
Bute made his appearance at Leicester House. Our readers may 
perhaps remember the account which Charlotte Grandison gives of 
her two lovers. One of them, a fashionable baronet, who talks French 
and Italian fluently, cannot write a line in his own language without 
some sin against orthography ; the other, who is represented as a most 
respectable specimen of the j'oung aristocracy, and something of a 
virtuoso, is described as spelling pretty well for a lord." — Essays vi. 
p. 19, (Sheldon's AmerTed.) 



ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 211 

assentjd to in heuy kynde, by steryng of odyr folke 
egging me yer to, where in y wote wel i have hyll 
ofFendyd to zowre Hynesse ; besechyng zow at the reve- 
rence of God yat zow lyke to take me in to the handys 
of zowre mercyfuUe and pytouse graace, thenkyng zee 
wel of zowre gret goodnesse. My lege Lord, my fulle 
trust is yat zee wylle have consyderacyoun, thauth ^ yat 
myn persone be of none valwe, zowre hye goodnesse 
wher God hath sette zow in so hye estat to every lege 
man yat to zow longyth plenteousely to geve grace, yat 
zow lyke to accept, zys myn symple reqwest for ye love 
of oure lady and of ye biysfulle Holy Gost, to whom I 
pray yat yey^ mot zowre hert enduce to al pyte and 
grace for yeyre^ hye goodnesse. 



11. 

King Richard the Third to his mother, the Duchess of 
Torh — li^L — Ellis, Second Series, Vol L,p.\Ql, 

Madam I recommende me to you as hertely as is to me 
possible ; beseching you in my most humble and effectuouse 
wise of your daly blissing to my synguler comfort and 
defence in my nede. And, Madam, I hertily beseche you 
that I may often here from you to my comfort, and suche 
newes as ben here my serverft ThomJis Bryan this berer 
shall showe you ; to whome please it you to yeve cre- 
dence unto. And, Madam, I beseche you to be good and 
graciouse lady to my lord my Chamberleyn to be your 
officer in Wilshire in such as Colingbourne had. I trust 
he shall therein do you good service, and that it please 
you that by this berer I may understande youre pleasur 
1 Though. 2 They. 3 Their. 



212 ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 

in this behalve. And I pray God sende you th' accom- 
plisshment of your noble desires. Written at Poinete- 
freit, the iij^ day of Juyn, with the hande of 
Yo^ most humble son, 

KICAEDUS REX. 



III. 

Lady Brian, Governess of the Lady LJltzaheth, (after' 
wards Queen), to Lord Cromwell, for instructions, 
after the death of Queen Anne, her mother. — 1536. 
Ellis. Second Series, Vol. II., pp. 81, 82. 

EXTRACTS. 

• • • • • 

Now et es so, my Lady Elizabethe is put from that 
degre she was afore ; and what degre she is at now, I 
know not bot by be hering say ; therfor I know not how 
to order her, nor myself, nor (non) of bars that I have 
the rewl of ; that is her women & har gromes : besych- 
yng you to be good Lord to my Lady & to al hers ; and 
that she may haue som rayment ; for she hath neither 
gown nor kertel, nor petecot, nor no maner of linnin for 
smokes, nor cerchefes nor sieves, nor rayls, nor body- 
stychets, nor handcerchers, nor mofelers, nor be- 
gems. . . . . ' 

God knoweth, my Lady hath great pain with her 
great teeth, & they come very slowly forth ; & causeth 
me to suffer her Grace to have her wil more than I 
would ; I trust to God & her teeth were well graft, to 
have her Grace after another fashion, than she is yet : 
so as I trust the Kings grace shal have great comfort in 
her Grace. For she is as toward a Child, & as gentle 



ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 213 

of conditions, as ever I knew ene in ray leyf. Jesu 
preserve her Grace. As for a Day or two at a hey 
teyra, or whan som ever it shal please the Kings Grace 
to have set abrod, I trost so to indever me, that shee shal 
so do as shal be to the Kings honour, and hers ; and than 
after to take her ease again 

To the ryht nobel, & my syngeler good Lord 

My Lord Prive Sel, be thys delyverd. 



IV. 

Minute of a Letter from Queen Elizabeth to the Queen 
of Scots, Feb. 1st, 1571. Ellis, Second Series, Vol. IIL 
pp. 1, 2. 

Madame : Of late time I have receaved divers let- 
ters from yow, to the which you male well gesse, by 
the accidentes of the time, whie I have not made anie an- 
swer ; but speciallie because I saw no matter in them that 
required any such answer as could have contented yow, 
and to have discontented yow had bin but an increase 
of your impatience, which I thought tyme would have 
mitigated as it doth commonlie where the cause thereof 
is not truelie grounded, and that it be so understand ; 
but now findinge by your last letter the 27th of the last, 
an increase of your impatience tending allsoe to manie 
uncomlie, passionate, and vindicative speeches, I thought 
to change my former opinion, and by patient and advised 
wordes to move yow to stale, or ells to qualifie your pas- 
sions, and to consider that it is not the manner to obtain 
good things with evill speeches, nor benefitts with injurious 
chalenges, nor to gett good to yourself with doing evill 
to another. ... 



214 ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 

Wishing to you the same grace of God that I wish 
to myself, and that he maie direct you to desire and 
attain e to that which is meete for his honnor and 
your quietnes, with contacioun both of bodie and minde. 
Given at ray Pallace of Westminster the first daie of 
February, 1571. 

Your Cosin that wisheth 

you a better mynde. 



V. 

Thomas Lorhin to Mr. Adam Newton, the Tutor of Prince 
Henry, detailing the manner in which a young English 
Gentleman completed his education at Paris in 1 600. 
Ellis, Second Series, Vol. 111., p. 221. 

Syr 
The chief errand of my last letters was to let you 
understand of our safe comming hither. These will give 
you an account of our tyme spent here. Our days there- 
fore are thus divided. In the forenoone Mr. Puckering 
spends two houres on horsebacke ; from seven to nine one 
morning, from nine to eleven another.. Two other houres 
he spends in French ; one in reading, the other in render- 
ing to his teacher some part of a Latine authour by word 
of mouth. A fifth hour is employed in learning to handle 
his weapon which entertains him till twelve of the clock, 
when the bell warns him to dinner, where the company 
continues together till Two o'clock, either passing the 
time in discourse, or some honest recreation perteyning to 
armes. Then they are warned by the bell to dauncing 
which houlds him till Three, when he retyres himself into 
his chamber, and there employs with me two other hours 



ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 215 

in reading over some Latin author ; which done he trans- 
lates some little part of it into French, leaving his faults 
to be corrected the morrow following by his teacher. 
After supper we take a brief survey of all. 

Your most humbly devoted 
in all duty and service, 

Thomas Lorkin. 
Paris this 6 of Novemb. 

Stilo novo. 
To the honor*""' Mr. Adam Newton 
at the Princes Court in Enojland. 



VI. 

Lord Bacon on his Impeachment. Mlis. Second 
Series, Vol III p. 235: — 1620. 

My verie good Lords 

I humbly praye your Lord- 
ships to make a favourable and true construction of my 
absence. It ys noe fayninge nor fayntinge, but sicknes 
both of my harte and of my backe ; though joyned with 
that comfort of my mynde that persuadeth me that I am 
not farre from heaven, whereof I feele the first fruites. 
And because, whether I lyve or dye, I would be glad to 
preserve my honor and fame, as farre as I am worthye 
hearinge that some complayntes of base Bryberye are 
come before your Lordships, my requests to your Lord- 
ships are ; First, that you will mayntayne me in your 
good opynion without prejudice untill my cause be 
hearde ; Secondlye, that in regard I have sequestred 
my mynde at this tyme in great part from worldlye 
matters, thinkinge of my accompt and answere in a 



216 ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 

higher Court, your Lordships would geve me some con- 
venient tyme accordinge to the course of other Courtes 
to advise with my counsel!, and to make my answere ; 
wherein neverthelesse mj counsells part wilbe the lest, 
for I shall not by the grace of God trick up an innocen- 
cye with cavillacions, but playnlye and ingenuouslye 
(as your Lordships know my maner ys) declare what 
I knowe or remember ; Thyrdlye, that accordinge to the 
course of Justice, I may be allowed to except to the wit- 
ness brought against me, and to move questions to your 
Lordships for their crosse examinacions ; and likewise to 
produce my owne witnesses for discoverye of the truthe ; 
and Lastlye, if their come anye more peticions of like 
nature, that your Lordships would be pleased not to take 
anye prejudice or apprehension of anye number or muster 
of them against a Judge that makes two thousand De- 
crees and Orders in a yeare ; not to speake of courses 
that have bene taken for huntinge out complayntes 
against me ; but that I may answere them accordinge 
to tlie rules of Justice severallye and respectivelye. 

These requests I hope to appeare to your Lordships no 
other then just. And soe thinkinge my selfe happye to 
have soe noble Peers and reverende Prelates to discerne 
of my cause, and desyringe that noe priviledge of great- 
nes for subterfuge of guiltynes, but meane (as I sayd) 
to deale fayrlye and playnlye with your Lordships, and 
to put my selfe upon your honors and favours, I pray 
God to blesse your Counsells and your persons ; and rest 

Your Lordships humble servaunt, 
9 Martij, 1620. Fr. St. Alban, Cane. 

To the right ho. his verie good 
Lords the Lords Spyrituall and 
Temporall, in the Upper House of 
Parliament assembled. 



ILLUSTRATIVE SPECIMENS. 217 

VII. 

Cromwell to the Lady Elizabeth his wife : — 1651. 

My deerest, 

I could not satisfie my selfe to omit this 
poast, although I have not much to write, yett indeed I 
love to write to my Deere whoe is very much in my 
heart. It joyes mee to heere thy soule prospereth ; the 
Lord increase his favors to thee more and more. The 
great good thy soule can wish is that the Lord lift upon 
[thee] the light of his countenance which is better then 
life. The Lord blesse all thy good counsell and example 
to those about thee, and heere all thy prayers, and ac- 
cept thee alwayes. I am glad to heere thy Sonn and 
Daughter are with thee. I hope thou wilt have some 
good opportunitye of good advise to him. Present my 
duty to my Mother, and my love to all the familye. 
Still pray for 

Edenburgh thine 

3d of May 1651 O Cromwell. 

For my beloved wife Elizabeth 

Cromwell att thp Cockpitt in West- 
minster, theise. 



INDEX. 



A. 

Alcuin, 29. 
Alfred, 31, 33. 
Alliteration, 88, 102. 
American Branch of English, 

84, 153. 
Ancren Riwle, 89. 
Anglo-Norman dialect, 68. 
Anglo-Saxon authors, 32. 

chronicle, 30 . 

conquest, 22. 

economy in use of words, 

38-40.* 

grammar, 36. 

inflections, 36, 37, 99. 

kinds of words, 42. 

— language, character, 27, 

34. 

dialects, 24. 

homogenous, 24. 

literature, Christian, 29. 

pagan, 28. 

unlike that of other 

nations, 30. 

poetry, 31. 

— r— pronunciation, 36. 

prose, 33. 

rules of syntax, 38. 

terminations in English 

words, 41. 

variety of tribes, 23. 

words for moral ideas, 

34. 

words in use, 42. 

in vocabulary, 43. 



Arabs, learning, 52. 
Arthur and his knights, 75. 



Aryan family, 14. 
Ascham, 124. 

B. 

Bacon, Lord, 138. 
Bacon, Roger, 76. 
Bede, 29. 
Beowulf, 31. 
BolLngbroke, 147. 
Browning, Mrs., 103, 160. 
Bunyan, 145. 
Byron, 150. 

C. 

Caedmon, 32. 
Canterbury Tales, 111. 
Carlyle, 160. 
Caxton, 118. 
Celtic character, 15. 

grammar, 19. 

influence, 17. 

language, no fusion, 19. 

love of poesy, 17. 

Chapman's Homer, 137 

Chaucer, 67-70, 110-114. 

Cheke, Sir John, 124. 

Coleridge's Glossarial Index,94. 

Cowper, 144. 

Cranmer, 123. 

Creed of Piers Ploughman, 106. 

D. 

Danes, in England, 46. 

influence, 49. 

related to Normans, 48. 



INDEX. 



219 



Daniel, 137. 

Danish words in the language, 

50. 
Defoe, 146. 
Donne, 137. 

Drama, early English, 133. 
Dramatic literature, 133-136. 
Dryden, 142. 

E. 

England and English, names 
first used, 26. 

English, Earliest, 64. 

English language, changes in 
orthography and pronun- 
ciation, 152. 

date of beginning, 100. 

English language, growth, 100. 

indebted to the clergy, 

153. 

Norman words in, 104, 

114. 

origin, 100. 

settled, 115. 

English, Old, 66. 

English language in Great 
Britain, 151. 

in United States, 151. 

English metrical romance, 97., 

F. 

I 

Fortescue, 119. 

French language, dialects in, 79. 

disuse of, 60. 

in England, 55-57. 

taught in schools, 57. 

French Literature in England, 

66-68, 78. 
French School, 140-144. 
Froissart, 82, 83, 122. 

G. 

Genitive form his, 87. 
GeoflQ*ey of Monmouth, 75. 
German literature, influence of, 
150. 



Gesta Romanorum, 75. 

Geste of Kyng Horn, 98. 

Gibbon, 149. 

Gothic family of nations, 22. 

Gower, 114. 

Grammatical changes of the 

13th century, 93. 
Gray, 144. 

H. 

Hall, Joseph, 137. 
Herbert, 137. 
Historians, English, 149. 
Hobbes, 143. 
Hooker, 138. 
Hume, 149. 



I. 



Inflections in Early English, 99. 
Italian Literature, Influence, 
131. 

J. 

James I. of Scotland, 116. 
Johnson, Samuel, 148, 149. 

L. 

Langlande, 104. 

Latimer, 124. 

Latins Chroniclers, 74. 

Latin language, use, 74. 

Latin literature of the Nor- 
mans, 74, 77. 

Latin terminations, 128. 

Latin words introduced, 124- 
128. 

Lay am on, 86-88. 

Lydgate, 116, 119. 

M. 

Macaulay, 149, 150. 
Malory, Sir Thomas> 117. 
Mandeville, 103. 
Mapes, Walter, 75, 80. 



220 



INDEX. 



Merry Tales, 67. 
Metrical Romances, 81. 
Milton, 138, 139. 
Minot, Lawrence, 102. 
More, Sir Thomas, 122. 

Life of Richard IIL, 122. 

Mort Arthur, 117. 
Motley, 150. 

N. 

Norman character, 54. 

conquest, 53. 

element distinct, 54, 61. 

learning and literature, 

52, 78. 
Normans imite with Saxons, 

63. 
Nut-brown Maid, 120. 

O. 

Ormulum, 90. 

Owl and Nightingale, 93. 

P. 

Participle in ing, 87, 108. 

Paston Letters, 117. 

Pastoral Poetry, 132. 

Pecock, Bishop, 117. 

Piers Ploughman, 104. 

Poetry, revival of, 150. 

Political Songs, 99. 

Pope, 144. 

Prescott, 150. 

Prose as affected by the 

French school, 144. 
Prose of the 14th century, 70. 



Q. 



Quarles, 137. 

B. 

Reformers, 122. 
Reliquiae Antiquae, 93. 
Richard de Bury, 75. 
Robert Mannynge, 95. 



Robert of Gloucester, 93. 

Robertson, 150. 

Robin Hood, 96. 

Roman Element, influence, 21. 

Romances, character, 81. 

metrical, 81. 

prose, 82. 



Romance of Alexander, 92. 
Romaunt of the Rose, 110. 

S. 

San Greal, 80. 

Scholastic philosophy, 77. 

Scriptures, Versions, 137. 

Sermons of the 13th century, 
93. 

Shakspeare, 134-136. 

Sidney, Sir Philip, 132. 

Spenser, 136. 

Study of words, 129, 130. 

Style, as dependent on differ- 
ent Elements of Lan- 
guage, 128, 129. 

Surrey, 131. 

Synonymes, 59. 

Swift, 146. 

T. 

Taylor, Jeremy, 138, 143. 
Tennyson, 103, 150. 
Theological Literature, 77, 138. 
Tyndale, 108, 123. 

V. 

Vindex Anglicus, 125. 

W. 

Wace, 79. 

Walton, Izaak, 145. 

Warner, 136. 

William of Malmesbury, 74. 

William the Conqueror, 72. 

Wither, 141. 

Worcester, 152. 

Wordsworth, 133, 150. 

Wyatt, 131. 

Wycliffe, 105, 107. 



